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PHOENIX: US President Donald Trump said on Monday (October 19) that he would conduct a COVID-19 test before the upcoming presidential debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden this week.
“He sure wouldn’t have a problem with that,” Trump told reporters when asked if he would be tested before Thursday’s debate in Nashville.
Trump announced on October 2 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and declined to say when he last tested negative before the previous debate held on September 29.
Thursday’s debate between Trump and Biden will feature a mute button to allow each candidate to speak without interruption, organizers said Monday, in an effort to avoid interruptions that marred the first showdown.
The Presidential Debate Committee said each candidate’s microphone would be muted to allow the other to make two minutes of opening remarks at the beginning of each 15-minute segment of the debate. Both microphones will turn on to allow a round trip after that time.
Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during a hot-tempered and chaotic debate on September 29, and Biden responded with insults.
Trump withdrew from a second scheduled debate, scheduled for last Thursday, over a disagreement over the virtual format.
The Trump campaign said Monday it was unhappy with the set of topics proposed for Thursday’s debate.
READ: Floridians line up to cast their vote as early voting in US surpasses record mark of 30 million
Approximately 30 million Americans have already cast their votes for the November 3 presidential election.
Voters cast more than 21 percent of the overall total in 2016, when more than 136.6 million Americans voted. In 2016, there were 5.9 million early votes on October 23, 16 days before Election Day.
With Biden sending his running mate Kamala Harris to Florida to rally voters there, Trump was in a western turn on the Arizona battlefield, where he won in 2016 but is now far behind his rival in state polls. .
The choice quickly boils down to whether voters see Trump as best positioned to revive the ailing economy or whether they believe the president has exacerbated the pandemic and want Biden to deliver on his promise to unify a divided country.
LEE: Trump calls Fauci a ‘disaster’ and seeks to assure his team that he can win
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