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© Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Next Trump-Biden debates now uncertain as rival camps argue
By ZEKE MILLER and WILL WEISSERT WASHINGTON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
52 Comments
PTownsend
Hold it virtually.
Isolate Trump. Keep Super spreader 1 away from others. Trump should not be allowed to put even more people at risk. I want his swamp drained, but do not want to see Trump spread the virus any farther.
Serrano
The Biden side is trying to use the virus as an excuse to hold a real face to face debate in which he can't use a teleprompter. They know he probably cannot last through a second debate with Trump.
The Avenger
OK, no problem. No debate. Maybe Biden can do a virtual townhall by himself. It'll be a free 90-minute infomercial for him.
oldman_13
Trump won't agree to any conditions where he can't scream and bully Biden.
kohakuebisu
Hold the debate as planned and empty chair any candidate that doesn't turn up.
Ah_so
Agree. But we could put something more suitable on the Trump chair, like a crying baby in a wig.
bass4funk
This is just stupid! You can keep these two far apart with masks and a screen, why on earth would the President want to debate someone anyone virtually, how do we know that Biden won't have someone with cue cards or a teleprompter of even Donna Brazille feeding him the answers? We don't and this is bad all away around, but I think the President should agree to a virtual debate ONLY if both sides send people to monitor the other candidate during these virtual debate. Biden's people behind Trump and Trump's people behind Biden, then sure, have the debate, make it transparent.
2020hindsights
Trump is riddled with Covid and spreading - there is no way he should be outside at all. It's not safe and it sends the wrong message. How can we expect infected people to self-isolate if the president won't.
But Trump is in big trouble. The last debate cost him bigly in the polls, but he doesn't have many chances to get the coverage he needs to claw this back. At this stage he is facing a landslide and if he can claw that back to a small loss, he has the chance to try to steal the election in the courts.
plasticmonkey
Uh, I think this can be easily controlled.
You think Trump is going to agree to a mask? You don't either.
sunfunbun
Trump is such a joke. He has to break the rules and, like Pence, interrupt and go on and on at his own whim. He knows he has to follow the rules, if held virtually because the moderator can cut off his mike, and poor Donald pouts!!
Donald has to play by his own rules...breaking them, too, whenever he wants. What a child. What a loser. What a coward.
But the debate doesn't really matter. Seeya the worst president ever, the Biden landslide is coming.
I'm enjoying this, now, as the size of the landslide and how it carries America for the future is looking great.
The terrible Republican party will lose even more power as America will see just how bad their lies have been, and they emanate not only from Trump, he's only a (huge problematic) symptom of the conservatives, not the cause.
Republicans just latched on and used him because they're a bunch of dishonest weasels who lack integrity. As soon as Trump's gone, they'll all say they disagreed with his demeanor, words, policy, and love for Putin.
Strangerland
If trump hadn’t been such a failure by letting himself get the virus, the debates wouldn’t be a problem.
Biden should show up and do the debate without trump. He gets 90 minute to talk about how pathetic trump has been. Which was 90 minutes more than he got with the debate with the loser last time.
Attilathehungry
The "town hall" format debates are a joke.
The people asking questions are NOT randomly chosen, they are carefully screened and handed questions to ask. There are numerous reports of political partisans and campaign workers taking part pretending to be "undecided" voters. There is virtually no interaction between the candidates.
How about we put Pence in to sub for Trump if Biden is worried about Covid? I'd pay money to see that. After the surgical precision that Pence showed in his dissection of Sen. Harris, it would be a great event!
At least hold the final face to face debate as scheduled. And keep the moderator on the sidelines! Let the two men go at it unscripted, the way debates are meant to be. This format of "2 minutes", "30 second rebuttal", is nothing.
Strangerland
The right supports trump skipping the debates because they know he’ll get eviscerated by the public in a town hall.
bass4funk
Even you don’t believe that, come on man...
Didn’t you just say they can control that?
lincolnman
I'm sure they'll hold it virtually....
And Trump will invite all his family, friends, and supporters to his location, so he can infect all the ones that didn't catch it from his Rose Garden super-spreader event last time...
Just call his area the Jim Jones auditorium...
Serrano
OK, no problem. No debate. Maybe Biden can do a virtual townhall by himself.
Please. We don't want to be bored to death. We want a debate. Face to face.
Pukey2
What part of quarantine does the Trump camp not understand? He shouldn't even be outside, let alone on stage. Nobody should be within a mile of that virus.
He is running scared, knowing that nobody in their right mind will want to go through with a face-to-face meeting, and so he objects to a virtual meeting. He's doing everything to avoid a debate. Scared he'll screw up again. He knows he's doing baldly in the polls, he knows he's heading for a 3 November massacre, he knows he's endangered lives with the Rose Garden massacre, he knows he's heading for jail next year and he knows he's got one foot in the grave. Wheeze, baby, wheeze.
They showed him talking outside yesterday. The spit that projected out of his mouth was disgusting. That lawn needs to be fumigated.
Pukey2
If it's good enough for Obama, then it's good enough for the man-child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLkJ690LOOI
jack o helen
Well, maybe they won't have a second debate because in Trump's weird mind, it already happened and he won:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bonkers-interview-trump-says-beat-195113982.html
Yeah, it's true, according to Trump, he beat Biden in the second debate, even though it hasn't happened yet. Wow! Something is really wrong with Trump.
u_s__reamer
A virtual debate for a virtual president seems about appropriate, but Trump is looking to reinfect himself if he resumes his rallies attended by his credulous followers, Covid and the ghost of Jim Jones.
Serrano
Come on, man, here's the deal: Biden's handlers are going to chicken out of a 2nd face to face debate using the coronavirus as an excuse. So pathetic.
Biden should show up and do the debate without trump
Um, you need two people to have a debate. I really hope Biden's handlers don't chicken out here. By the way, how come they refused to agree to a check for earpieces?
arrestpaul
The allegedly "nonpartisan" Commission on Presidential Debates chose to arbitrarily change to a "virtual" format without consulting at least one of the participants. I'm shocked. How much help does the "nonpartisan" Commission on Presidential Debates think that Biden needs? How many foreigners will object to this obvious disregard of the debates previous negotiations? What is the democrats usual words to govern by? Something about if they don't like the rules, then the rules must be ignored.
jack o helen
Serrano, how can they have a second debate, when according to Trump, it has already happened? And furthermore, according to him, he won. LOL
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bonkers-interview-trump-says-beat-195113982.html
Sneezy
Trump said that he hasn't been tested for Covid again, so he could still have the virus - yet he wants to hold a rally on Saturday, putting his own supporters at risk. He cannot be trusted to take part in the debate without infecting others. A virtual debate is necessary.
lincolnman
I really hope the debate occurs....
Trump is so pumped up on drugs it will make his normal unhinged rants look like the Gettysburg Address...
Just look at all the gems he dropped last night during his Fox interview...
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/08/politics/donald-trump-maria-bartiromo-fox-business/index.html
Just give him a podium and let him self-implode...please, please...
stormcrow
Trump is clearly unhinged and he needs the debates more than Biden. If Trump doesn’t want to go to the debates, screw him.
HonestDictator
As long as Trump is running around as Captain COVID USA, he is not fit to have a face to face live debate especially when contagious! It's real simple logic. But being the covidiot he is, it's the only thing he'll accept.
Blacklabel
Trump can return to 'public engagements' this weekend, White House physician says
Bob Fosse
Why does this equate to “poor sad liberals” in your mind?
More like poor co-workers. White House physician hasn’t been too forthcoming with exact information. Do you know the exact timeline of trumps infection?
No, no you don’t.
Jimizo
I must have watched a different debate. I thought it was about 50-50. Maybe you are talking about the second debate like the one Trump said he won but didn’t actually take place. Maybe I watched the real debate but forgot to make up my mind who won before I watched it.
itsonlyrocknroll
How in all honesty one can describe debate in a sentence, between Trump and Biden is beyond comprehension?
Both are well past their political sell buy date
Toasted Heretic
He's mentally unfit
The president said he will not participate in a virtual debate, planned for October 15, because the commission’s action is all a ruse to protect Joe Biden. Trump also claimed that not only did he beat Biden in the first debate but that he also scored a victory against his opponent in the second debate — the future debate that he had just told Bartiromo he would not attend.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-interview-when-you-catch-covid-you-get-better-immune-1072859/
Blacklabel
Its even more "uncertain" now that the supposedly unbiased moderator (who interned for Biden) was stupid enough to post on Twitter instead of Direct Message.
Toasted Heretic
Not surprised he's bottled it. He ran from 'Nam. He retreated to his bunker, the other month.
This is the guy who said he'd tackle an armed shooter, and he's terrified of a debate.
https://www.bbc.com/news/43202075
bass4funk
He would be unfit if he did participate in a virtual debate.
Madverts
Orange man goes yellow over debates...
Running scared!
Graham DeShazo
non-partisan doesn’t mean stupid. Cadet Contagion is still shedding virus and this has the added benefit of rule enforcement.
Even Republicans think the decision to boycott is stupid. He’s losing huge and Biden’s lead in battleground states is only widening.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Trump is a horrible negotiator. This is likely a bluff for better terms. I the commission holds their ground (or counter threatens “agree to the terms or VP Biden gets 90 min of uninterrupted time with the American people”) Trump will fold like a cheap table. It’s what he does.
Pukey2
Blacklabel:
Was that the same doctor appointed by Ronny Jackson, the guy who said Trump could live to the age of whatever ridiculously high number he said and that Trump had good genes?
Something stinks when all his doctors are made to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Do his children also have to sign a NDA? He made sure his niece had to sign one.
Pukey2
It's the virus speaking. China is literally inside his head!
Wakarimasen
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/10/05/and-a-plague-shall-cover-the-land-of-trump/
bass4funk
Yeah, the polls said he was losing last time as well in 2016, anyway the bottom line is this, why would the President engage in a debate and not know what Biden or his camp is doing behind the camera, I agree with the President and if other Republicans don’t like it, who cares, they’re not running and they weren’t elected to be President so they can talk all day long.
As was Hillary’s
289 documented accomplishments say otherwise.
Graham DeShazo
Nope, Bass. You are factually wrong. trump lead Hillary a couple times in 2016.
Biden has not trailed once in the last 150 days. Biden Has not trailed in a single high quality poll in the last year.
If you count contracting a deadly virus and giving it others (along with tying his shoes, finding the office and wearing pants) documentable accomplishments, then. MAYBE. Otherwise he’s been a failure of the first order of magnitude.
bass4funk
No, I’m factually right.
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/14/politics/poll-hillary-clinton-leads-donald-trump/index.html
https://time.com/4546942/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-lead-poll/
Neither did Hillary.
Yeah, and if you factor in the sluggish economy over the last 8 years and high unemployment for blacks and the fact that small businesses were going under and the private sector was abysmal and more people sitting at home and on their money, can’t pay their healthcare and tired of raised taxes, more racial unrest, thugs destroying our cities and Dems silent on it, if they think that’s great, vote for Biden.
Sneezy
You know that four of those years were under Trump, right?
bass4funk
No. Because they were her polls
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/12/politics/clinton-trump-swing-state-polls/index.html
Factually correct and now Biden is up the same
bass4funk
Booming economy and lowest black unemployment. Never meet a Democrat who didn't love regulations.