The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Thursday morning that next Thursday’s debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. would be held virtually because of health concerns about the coronavirus.
But while the Biden campaign raised no objection to the conditions, Mr. Trump declared that he would not participate and called the idea of a remote debate “ridiculous.”
The high-stakes standoff between Mr. Trump and the debate organizers emerged on Thursday morning, after the commission, with no warning to campaign representatives, said the Oct. 15 debate would feature candidates debating remotely “in order to protect the health and safety of all involved.”
Mr. Trump, who tested positive last week for the coronavirus, immediately objected to the concept in an interview on Fox News, saying: “I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate, that’s not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate — it’s ridiculous.”
Kate Bedingfield, a deputy Biden campaign manager, said in a statement, “Vice President Biden looks forward to speaking directly to the American people and comparing his plan for bringing the country together and building back better with Donald Trump’s failed leadership on the coronavirus that has thrown the strong economy he inherited into the worst downturn since the Great Depression.”
Mr. Trump accused the debate commission of “trying to protect Biden.” Senior Trump campaign officials insisted that they had not been consulted about the decision by the commission, and expressed surprise at the announcement.
But Marc Short, the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, in an appearance on CNN Thursday, left the door open to Mr. Trump’s participation in the next debate.
“We’re hopeful that they’ll actually enter into negotiations so we can hear what their concerns are,” Mr. Short said of the Biden campaign. “The rules are very specific that the sides are supposed to negotiate.”
Mr. Short sidestepped questions on when the last time was that Mr. Trump had tested negative for the virus, which has become a focus of concern after Mr. Trump took part in last week’s presidential debate shortly before his diagnosis was made public.
“You’ll have to ask the president’s team that,” Mr. Short said.
The Trump campaign has sought to shift attention away from the administration’s response to the pandemic in the debates, and a virtual debate would by its very structure call attention to the degree to which the virus has upended the country.
The format would also presumably make it easier for the moderator to cut off the candidates from going over their time limit or interrupting each other, which would further impede any effort by the president to change the subject away from the virus.
The virus was front and center, both visually and verbally, at last night’s vice-presidential debate between Mr. Pence and Senator Kamala Harris, who faced off from behind plexiglass barriers. Ms. Harris delivered a stinging indictment of the missteps by the federal government.
President Trump attacked two cabinet members who are closest to him, insisted he wouldn’t take part in a virtual debate against his Democratic challenger and revisited the events of the 2016 campaign in a meandering, hourlong telephone interview on Fox Business on Thursday.
Mr. Trump also referred to the Democratic vice-presidential nominee as a “monster,” called the director of the F.B.I. “disappointing,” posited that he might have contracted the coronavirus from a member of a military family, maintained that he is almost off medical treatments for the virus and…
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