Trump canceled the second presidential debate and instead plans to attend an in-person rally.
Forty-five gets more ridiculous and nastier every day. According to the Guardian, there will no longer be a presidential debate between #JoeBiden and #DonaldTrump on Thursday, the Commission on Presidential Debates confirmed on Friday. Instead, Trump, who recently contracted #coronavirus, plans on speaking at rallies.
The news comes after Biden and Trump got into a public disagreement over the debate’s format. Trump wanted an in-person debate while Biden and the commission called for a virtual debate for safety reasons. “It is now apparent there will be no debate on October 15, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for October 22,” the commission said in a statement.
But Mr. Pouty Pants doesn’t want to, so now he wants to host two events at the White House this weekend. On top of that, Trump is planning a rally in Florida on Monday. On Friday, Trump tweeted he would “be in Sanford, Florida on Monday for a very BIG RALLY!” In a Fox News interview Thursday, he also said that he might do a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday and in Pennsylvania on Sunday, but officials said he doesn’t plan to travel this weekend.
The next debate is set for October 22, which will take place at Belmont University in Nashville. The moderator will be NBC News’ Kristen Welker. Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, said there’s no medical reason for the debate’s cancellation. “There is no medical reason to stop the October 15 debate in Miami from proceeding as scheduled, since the president will be healthy and ready to debate,” he said. We would be glad to debate one-on-one without the commission’s interference,” he said.
On Friday, Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement that Biden will be ready to give Americans solutions on how to fix Trump’s America. He says Biden looks “forward to making his case to the American people about how to overcome this pandemic, restore American leadership and our alliances in the world, and bring the American people together. It’s shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions—but it’s no surprise.”
Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, issued a statement on Thursday, saying Trump would be able to hold public events again by Saturday. “Overall he’s responded extremely well to treatment, without evidence on examination of adverse therapeutic effects,” said Conley, adding that “Saturday will be day 10 since Thursday’s diagnosis and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting, I fully anticipate the president’s safe return to public engagement at that time.”
