Second election debate between Trump and Biden cancelled

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), the non-partisan body that organises these face-to-face meetings, on Friday cancelled the meeting between the US President, Donald Trump, and the Democratic candidate for the White House, Joe Biden, which had been scheduled for 15 October.

The committee announced that the reasons for the cancellation were due to various disagreements. In a statement, the Commission recalled that it had decided to hold the second virtual face-to-face meeting between Trump and Biden next Thursday in Miami (Florida) "to protect the health and safety of all involved", but President Trump refused to participate in that format.

The debate was to take place just two weeks after Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, and that diagnosis, added to the multiple infections confirmed in the White House and the president's entourage, has generated concern among the meeting's organisers and Biden's campaign team.

Following Trump's refusal to participate in a virtual face-to-face, the Commission noted that "it is now clear that there will be no debate on 15 October, and that the PDC will focus its attention on preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for 22 October".

It appears that, if there are no further developments, both candidates have agreed to participate in the debate on 22 October. This 'face-to-face' will take place at Belmont University in Nashville (Tennessee) and will be subject to "health safety considerations, according to all required tests, masks, social distance and other protocols".

The debate will be divided into six fifteen-minute blocks and the topics to be discussed will be announced a week before the meeting by the moderator, Kristen Welker, a journalist from NBC News.

The second and third debates in Miami and Nashville have been on the air since Trump announced a week ago that he had contracted COVID-19 and was admitted to hospital.

The president has spent this week convalescing at the White House, although today he will participate in a face-to-face event at the presidential mansion in front of hundreds of people. In addition, on Monday they intend to hold a rally in Florida.

His personal doctor, Sean Conley, said on Thursday that the president could return to participate in public events this Saturday given his positive evolution.
 

Trump, who tested positive for the coronavirus on 1 October, will gather hundreds of guests on the South Lawn of the White House this Saturday to give a speech on "law and order", a source at the presidential residence told EFE on Friday.

The president will keep his distance from the audience and speak to them from the balcony outside the Blue Room on the main floor of the White House.

Trump, who assures that he is no longer contagious despite the fact that experts are not clear that this is the case, revealed that next Monday he will hold his first meeting since he was diagnosed with COVID-19. The meeting with voters will be held at 19:00 in Sanford, in the key state of Florida.

"I will be in Sanford, Florida on Monday for a MULTITUDINARY RALLY," Trump proclaimed on Twitter this Friday, shortly after his re-election campaign made the announcement.
 

Although the president claims to be well and already recovered from the illness, medical experts are not clear that Trump is no longer contagious.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes that a patient can be surrounded by people again ten days after first showing symptoms, a point that Trump would reach this Sunday if, as the White House claims, he began to feel ill on October 1.

Trump has tried to downplay his diagnosis since returning to the White House from the hospital last Monday, describing his contagion as a "blessing from God" and asking Americans not to fear a pandemic that has already killed more than 210,000 people in the United States.

On Friday the president gave a two-hour radio talk show on one of the most popular programmes among conservatives, Rush Limbaugh's; and late in the day he took part in an interview on the programme of one of his allies on the conservative Fox News channel, Tucker Carlson.

In addition to being interviewed, Trump will undergo a "medical evaluation" by a Fox News collaborating doctor, Marc Siegel, who often spreads misinformation about the coronavirus during his appearances on the network, including a strong defense of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the disease.