With Donald Trump refusing to participate in a remote debate on Oct. 15, former Vice President Joe Biden has an alternative plan. He’s calling on the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) to move the town hall format planned for Oct. 15 to the final debate on Oct. 22.
“The voters should have a chance to ask questions of both candidates, directly,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager and communications director, Kate Bedingfield, said in a statement. “Every Presidential candidate since 1992 has participated in such an event, and it would be a shame if Donald Trump was the first to refuse.”
With Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, claiming Trump will hold a rally instead of debating on Oct. 15, Biden “will find an appropriate place to take questions from voters directly on October 15th, as he has done on several occasions in recent weeks,” Bedingfield said.
Trump made it very clear why he’s not going to do a remote debate.
“I’m not going to waste my time on virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about,” Trump said Thursday morning on Fox Business. “You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It’s ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want.”
And then they cut you off whenever they want.
The interrupting is the point, for Trump. If he can’t try to dominate and bully and show that the rules don’t apply to him, he doesn’t want to be there. But if he had been more responsible about trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the issue might not have come up.
”Of course” the move to a remote debate “has to do with the question of whether or not [Trump] might still be contagious,” CPD Republican co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf told Politico.
By refusing to wear masks or maintain social distancing, Trump created this situation. By refusing transparency and giving observers every reason to doubt the information about his condition coming from the White House, Trump made it impossible for the debate commission to trust that he would only show up in person if it was safe to do so. Now that he’s faced with the consequences of his actions, he’s having a temper tantrum.
Biden, meanwhile, will be talking to voters and pushing for a later debate in which voters get to ask questions.