On Thursday, President Donald Trump insisted that he would not be participating in the next presidential debate following an announcement from the Commission on Presidential Debates that it would be held virtually. The announcement that the event would be a web-based gathering came after Trump himself tested positive for the Coronavirus. If the president’s team were to bring the Coronavirus to an in-person meeting with the Biden campaign, there could be an issue — like Trump, Biden is in his 70s and in a population at a high risk for Coronavirus-related complications. Biden pointed out the president’s consistent belligerence in a statement to reporters after Trump announced that he’d supposedly skip the debate.
According to the president’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, Trump will be holding a campaign rally instead of going to the next debate. If the Trump campaign follows through, it actually wouldn’t be the first time that Donald Trump skipped a debate — back during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he did the same thing. Meanwhile, discussing the latest issue, Biden commented to reporters:
‘We don’t know what the president’s going to do; he changes his mind every second. So for me to comment on that now would be irresponsible. I think that if he’s not going to follow the commission’s recommendation and he goes off and he’s going to have a rally, I don’t know what I’ll do.’
Check out his comments below:
“We don’t know what the president’s gonna do; he changes his mind every second," Joe Biden says of President Trump asserting that he won't participate in virtual debate. Biden made the comments before his flight to Phoenix for campaign events Thursday. pic.twitter.com/UdWgcVXBjo
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 8, 2020
Originally, in his comments about the matter on Fox Business, the president insisted that he is “not going to waste [his] time on a virtual debate.” The president had this same belligerence on display during the first debate between himself and Biden, when he almost endlessly interrupted his opponent, leaving moderator Chris Wallace to plead with Trump to conduct himself with decency, to no avail. Trump was so wrapped up in himself that he refused to hold a stable conversation. On Fox, Trump complained that with a virtual debate set-up, the moderator could “cut you off whenever they want,” as if he’s still planning to interrupt just about whenever he wants at potential future debates.
Meanwhile, Stepien also claimed that the presidential debate commission was “unilaterally canceling an in-person debate” in order to assist the Biden campaign. There is, of course, no systematic conspiracy to prop up Biden over Trump. The issue is that Trump is simply wildly unfit for the job, by just about any reasonable measurement — letting Trump talk on his own could make the case against him plenty easily.
