Donald Trump backed out of the town hall debate scheduled for Thursday night because, with the Commission on Presidential Debates opting for a remote debate due to Trump’s coronavirus, he wouldn’t have been able to interrupt constantly. So former Vice President Joe Biden—who was willing to debate—went ahead and scheduled a town hall on ABC for Thursday.
Trump has now scheduled a competing town hall on NBC—which means he’ll be aired on NBC itself, MSNBC, and CNBC, while Biden is only on one channel. Basically, NBC is rewarding Trump for backing out of a debate because he didn’t want to play by the rules.
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Trump’s event will be moderated by Today show host Savannah Guthrie, who will be seated 12 feet away from him at an outdoor event in Miami, Florida. That level of caution will be safe, the network said, because Dr. Clifford Lane of the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Anthony Fauci had reviewed medical data, including a PCR test, and concluded “with a high degree of confidence” that the president is “not shedding infectious virus.” The question of whether Trump has tested negative went unanswered, which seems like an answer in itself.
The event will certainly be safer than Trump’s campaign rallies, which lack social distancing or consistent mask-wearing by attendees. Minnesota, for instance, has connected two dozen cases of coronavirus to presidential campaign events—12 of them attendees at Trump’s September 18 Bemidji rally, three at a September 30 Trump rally in Duluth, and three at a September 24 Mike Pence rally at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It’s not certain that they contracted the virus at those events, but it’s interesting, given the lack of safety precautions taken by the Trump campaign. One person who attended a Biden campaign event and four people who protested outside a Trump event also contracted the virus; again, it’s not clear if they did so at those events.
So for sure it’s better for public health for Trump to be at an event under NBC’s social distancing rules. But it’s offensive that NBC is giving him this platform when he should have been debating, but refused to do so. When someone not only backs out of a debate but explicitly says he’s backing out because “You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It’s ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want,” that person does not deserve to be handed an opportunity to make his case on three national television networks under rules he finds easier.
Not that doing a town hall on NBC is going to turn Trump’s fortunes around. Trump’s September town hall on ABC did not go so well for him, showing big weaknesses and predictably getting dismantled by fact-checkers. He doesn’t appear to have learned any lessons in the past month, and there’s no reason to believe this one will help him any more. But losing one less debate should be the only prize he gets for backing out of the debate, and NBC’s decision here is contemptible.
Trump and Biden are still scheduled to debate on October 22, unless Trump finds a way to get out of that one, too.