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US President Donald Trump promised not to participate in next week’s debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden after organizers announced that it will take place virtually due to the president’s diagnosis of Covid-19.
“I’m not going to do a virtual debate” with Biden, Trump told Fox News, moments after the Presidential Debate Committee announced the changes due to Trump’s diagnosis.
That casts serious doubt on whether the event will continue, even as Biden’s campaign promised that its candidate will participate.
“Vice President Biden looks forward to speaking directly to the American people,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.
The announcement by the nonpartisan Presidential Debate Commission cited the need to “protect the health and safety of all those involved in the second presidential debate.”
The candidates will “participate from separate remote locations” while the participants and the moderator will remain in Miami, he said.
The announcement came a week before Biden and Trump were scheduled to meet in Miami.
Trump was diagnosed with the coronavirus a week ago and, in a tweet Tuesday, said he was looking forward to discussing Biden on the Miami stage: “It’ll be great!” tweeted.
Biden, for his part, said he and Trump “shouldn’t have a debate” as long as the president remains positive for Covid-19.
Mr. Biden told reporters in Pennsylvania that he was “looking forward to discussing it,” but said “we will have to follow very strict guidelines.”
Trump became ill with the virus last Thursday, just 48 hours after first debating Biden in person in Cleveland.
While the two candidates remained a dozen feet apart during the debate, Trump’s infection raised health concerns for Biden and sent him to undergo multiple Covid-19 tests before returning to the election campaign.
Trump was still carrying the virus when he was discharged Monday from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, but his doctors have not provided any detailed updates on his status.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those with mild to moderate symptoms of Covid-19 can be contagious for up to and should be isolated for at least 10 days.
It is not the first debate in which the candidates are not in the same room.
In 1960, the third presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was broadcast with the two candidates on opposite shores. -PENNSYLVANIA
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