Published 20:39 IST, October 14th 2020
Trump, Biden to hold TV town halls as debate gets cancelled
Trump and his rival in upcoming US Election 2020, Democratic Presidential Nominee Biden will feature in their own respective televised town hall on October 15
US President Donald Trump and his rival in upcoming US Election 2020, Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden will feature in their own respective televised town hall on October 15 (local time). Instead of both contenders meeting for the second presidential debate on the evening of October 15, they will be simultaneously, but separately talking to the Americans in TV studios. While Trump will speak from NBC studio, Biden will be at ABC.
As per reports, NBC has said that Donald Trump will be in Miami while Joe Biden has already booked his appearance from Philadelphia. The scheduled debate was also designed as a town hall, meaning, both candidates for the November elections would have fielded questions from the voters. But the debate was upended after US President’s COVID-19 diagnosis. The Debate Commission reportedly wanted to switch the format to a virtual appearance as a precautionary measure but Trump, who had announced testing positive for the disease just days after the first debate, refused. This led to the cancellation of the event.
NBC said on October 14 that it had received a statement from the clinical director at the National Institutes of Health and lead infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci that they had "a high degree of confidence" that the US President is "not shedding infectious virus" anymore. Both Trump and the NBC host will be socially distanced at an outdoor setting and the audience will be wearing facemasks. Since Trump’s illness, Biden has been repeatedly testing for COVID-19 and has reported being negative.
Trump downplays COVID-19 severity
Meanwhile, following his COVID-19 diagnosis, Trump resumed his reelection campaign just two weeks after testing positive for the novel coronavirus and told his supporters in Sanford, near Orlando that he is “immune” to COVID-19. US President Donald Trump is being widely criticised for downplaying the severity of the disease. In a bid to secure his presidency for the second term in US Elections, Trump mocked the disease in front of a packed crowd and said, “I feel so powerful, I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, I'll kiss everyone in that audience.”
Trump said, "I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and the --everybody. I'll just give everybody a big, fat kiss."
The Republican President is competing with Democratic rival Joe Biden to acquire US presidency in November. Trump tested positive for COVID-19 just days after he mocked Biden for wearing facemasks. Then, he got hospitalised at Walter Reed Medical Centre and made a grand return to the White House in four days after the treatment that included oxygen supplement and antibody cocktail cure for COVID-19. However, in his public addresses, Trump has not only said that he is 'immune' but also that he learnt 'a lot about COVID-19' by going to the "real school".
Updated 20:39 IST, October 14th 2020