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(CNN) – US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will not participate in the second presidential debate with Joe Biden after the Committee on Presidential Debates said the event will take place virtually due to the president’s positive diagnosis of coronavirus.
“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Trump said on Fox Business. “I’m not going to waste time in a virtual debate.”
Trump’s statements question the holding of the second debate after the Commission took the significant step to completely remake the contest between the two candidates. The members of the Debate Commission considered that the measure was necessary given the uncertainty surrounding the president’s health.
Biden’s campaign quickly accepted the virtual format on Thursday.
The announcement of the virtual debate
“The second presidential debate will take the form of an assembly, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations,” the Commission said in a statement. “Assembly participants and moderator Steve Scully, Senior Executive Producer and Political Editor for C-SPAN Networks, will be located at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami, Florida.”
The Commission went on to say that debate moderator Steve Scully and attendees who will ask Trump and Biden questions will appear from Miami, the original site of the debate.
The second debate is scheduled for October 15. Trump tested positive for coronavirus last week.
Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris debated in person Wednesday night, although separated by a Plexiglas barrier.
Debates in doubt
The future of the Trump-Biden debates has been in doubt since the president’s positive covid-19 diagnosis last week. CNN reported Monday that the Commission was considering moving the debates to a virtual format.
“The Commission, including myself, is certainly open to the virtual functioning of the debates, without a doubt,” said a member of the Commission, who requested anonymity to speak openly about the forthcoming deliberations.
Thursday’s commission announcement came hours after Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris debated in person Wednesday night, albeit separated by Plexiglas.
Yet even before the vice-presidential debate, Commission members were consumed with what to do with the upcoming presidential head-to-head matches and said that whether the event occurred in person or virtually would depend on one thing: Trump’s well-being.
“Everything will depend on the health of the president,” said a member of the Commission before the vice-presidential debate. “We have to plan as if it were going to happen … If they quarantine him at the White House, they have a way to bring him” live to the living room.
More on the vice-presidential debate
