The second presidential debate in Miami between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden has been dropped, concurring another report.
The decision to scrap the Oct. 15 contest in the Sunshine State was made Friday after the president declared he was boycotting the debate when occasion coordinators changed it to a virtual configuration, The Wall Street Journal announced.
“No, I’m not going to burn through my time in a virtual debate,” Trump said on Fox Business on Thursday morning.
Hours after the fact, Biden’s campaign declared the previous veep would rather spent Thursday night at an independent ABC city center with electors in Philadelphia, adequately killing the second contest.
Trump’s re-election campaign said they would be willing to take part in an in-person contest if they delayed the remaining two contests by one week, but Biden’s campaign rejected that proposal.
Trump 2020 and other top Republicans accused the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates of changing the format of the debate to help Biden who they have repeatedly accused of senility.
But the commission’s board said the decision was made to “protect the health and safety of all involved” after the president tested positive for COVID-19.
In open letters obtained by The Post, more than 175 physicians wrote to the commission this week saying they believed an in-person debate could be held safely and called on the organization to reverse their decision.
In March 2016, Fox News was also forced to cancel a GOP debate in Salt Lake City when Trump declined to participate.
At this stage, the third Trump-Biden contest in Nashville on Oct. 22 is still going ahead.
The Trump campaign later issued a statement on the cancelation.
“There is no medical reason to stop the Oct. 15 debate in Miami from proceeding as scheduled, since the President will be healthy and ready to debate. There is also no reason there shouldn’t be the three total presidential debates as Joe Biden had originally agreed. We have suggested using Oct. 22 and Oct. 29 to hold the final two debates. It’s time for the biased commission to stop protecting Biden and preventing voters from hearing from the two candidates for president,” said Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director.
And earlier, The Post reported that as many as 175 medical doctors from across the nation have written to the commission saying an in-person debate would be safe as long as social distancing guidelines were followed by both Trump and Biden.
