On 11 October 2019, the Presidential Debates Commission (CPD) announced that it would host four debates; three of them would pit incumbent President Donald Trump, Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, and all other participants who would qualify, while a debate would be a vice presidential debate between incumbent Vice President Mike Pence, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and any third-party candidate who meets the criteria. [4] [5] Then President Carter refused to run for a debate in 1980 because the League had invited independent candidate John B. Anderson, whose candidacy posed a greater threat to Carter than to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan (who later defeated Carter). The 8. In October, the Presidential Debates Committee announced that due to Trump`s positive COVID diagnosis, the second debate would take place virtually, with the moderator in Miami and the candidates participating remotely. Biden agreed to participate in the debate, but Trump said he would not participate in a virtual debate and would instead hold a rally. [115] A spokesman for the Biden campaign said, referring to Trump`s refusal to participate in a virtual debate, that “Biden would like to appear virtually, but said that if the president refused to appear, the former vice president would hold a city hall elsewhere.” [115] The Biden campaign then planned a nationwide televised city hall on ABC with George Stephanopoulos on October 15. [116] [117] In August 2020, Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of the Trump campaign, sent a letter to the Committee on Presidential Debates requesting that a fourth debate be held in early September before states began sending mail-in ballots. Otherwise, Giuliani said the third debate, on Oct. 22, 2020, should be moved to the first week of September.
[17] With two more presidential debates and one between the upcoming vice presidential candidates, it was clear to viewers that they didn`t want a rehearsal of Tuesday — and neither did the Commission for Presidential Debates: the Commission announced wednesday that it was considering changing the remaining debates. Here are six takeaways from the first Trump-Biden debate. The announcement also stated that after each candidate gave their two-minute answer, the microphones would not be muted. [130] Mute was executed by the production team instead of the presenter. [131] Two weeks before the debate, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of cancer. [33] Ginsburg was one of four Supreme Court justices generally considered liberal; the other five judges are generally considered conservative. The day after Ginsberg`s funeral, Trump appointed conservative Amy Coney Barrett. Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, acted quickly and promised to vote on his nomination before Election Day.
[34] The decision was controversial because the same Republicans in the Senate had refused to consider an appointment of President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court during an election year. [35] Chris Wallace of Fox News, the moderator of the debate, chose the topics. [8] He was not satisfied with the way things went. The League of Women Voters angrily withdrew its support for one of the 1988 presidential debates after the Democratic and Republican campaigns negotiated their own ground rules without the League`s contribution in a way aimed at minimizing the risk or spontaneity of the candidates. The final presidential debate took place on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee, at Belmont University. Kristen Welker of NBC News was the host. On the morning of October 2, the White House press office announced that the president had contracted COVID-19. One of his close advisers, Hope Hicks, had shown symptoms on the plane on his way back from the first debate and then tested positive. Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, tested positive shortly after and were quarantined. [111] The president was hospitalized for three days.
[112] The second debate would have taken place during the CDC-recommended quarantine period of two weeks. The Presidential Debates Committee did not immediately say whether Trump`s diagnosis would influence the second debate. [113] [114] Chris Wallace, who moderated the first debate, was “jealous.” Over the decades, groups, including the Green and Libertarian parties, have filed several legal challenges against the Presidential Debate Commission, advancing various legal arguments that say essentially the same thing: the debate process excludes third-party candidates and is therefore structurally biased to favor the Democratic and Republican parties. A recent federal lawsuit, backed by both the Libertarian and Green parties, called it a “bipartisan bias.” In the weeks leading up to the debate, Trump was part of various controversies. Bob Woodward has published his second book on the Trump presidency, based on 19 recorded interviews with Trump. In a February 2020 recording, Trump hinted that he understood the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning, which contrasted with Trump`s attempts to publicly downplay the virus. [29] Trump confirmed that he had downplayed the severity of the pandemic, saying, “I don`t want to create panic.” [30] The New York Times published an investigation into Trump`s federal tax returns, which found that Trump had paid no taxes for 10 of the 15 years studied and only $750 in federal income tax for 2016 and 2017. In addition, they reported that his companies have lost money in most years. [31] A few days before the debate, the United States passed the 200,000 COVID-19 death mark. This figure accounted for 20% of deaths worldwide, even though the United States accounts for only 4% of the world`s population. [32] “It kind of depends on campaign support,” Schroeder told the Post, noting that a candidate can refuse participation at any time if they don`t like the moderator or a proposed format. “If you become too radical in the structure of the debates, you probably have a problem with the willingness of the candidates to participate.” Candidates can agree on even more detailed rules in the form of a memorandum of understanding established between campaigns.
Official letters of intent describe the detailed rules of engagement, how each candidate should be approached, at seating arrangement or standing, at room temperature. The 2012 agreement between Obama and Romney`s campaigns included rules prohibiting the use of props or visual aids and prohibited public follow-up questions during City Hall. The second debate was scheduled to take place.m on Thursday, October 15.m, 2020, from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.m .m EDT at the Arsht Center in Miami. This debate was originally scheduled to take place at the Crisler Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but the University of Michigan withdrew as host on June 23, 2020 due to public health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [109] [110] Steve Scully of C-SPAN should have moderated the debate, which would have taken place in the form of a public meeting. [17] On October 9, 2020, the Commission cancelled a second scheduled debate between President Donald Trump (right) and former Vice President Joe Biden (right). .