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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 after the president’s positive diagnosis of coronavirus.
“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Trump said on Fox Business. “I am not going to waste time in a virtual debate.”
Trump’s comment calls into question the second debate after the commission took the significant step to completely remake the contest between the two candidates. The members of the debate committee considered that the measure was necessary given the uncertainty surrounding the president’s health.
Biden’s campaign on Thursday quickly embraced the virtual format.
“The second presidential debate will take the form of a municipal meeting, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations,” the commission said in a statement about the debate, which is scheduled for October 15 in city hall format. .
The commission went on to say that the debate moderator, Steve Scully, and attendees who will ask Trump and Biden questions will appear from Miami, the original site of the debate.
The future of the Trump-Biden debates has been in doubt since the president’s positive 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 virtual operations of the debates, without a doubt,” said a member of the commission, who requested anonymity to speak openly about the upcoming deliberations.
The commission’s announcement Thursday came hours after US Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris debated in person Wednesday night, albeit separated by Plexiglass.
Yet even before the US vice-presidential debate, members of the commission were consumed with what to do with the upcoming presidential races and said whether the event happened in person or virtually focused 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 how it will happen … If they quarantine him at the White House, they have a way to bring him” alive into the living room.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
This story was first published on CNN.com “Trump says he will not participate in the next debate after the commission announces that it will be virtual”
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