Donald Trump will participate in a town hall with NBC News on Thursday night while Democratic nominee Joe Biden will deliver a town hall event on ABC. This is taking place after Trump refused to participate in a virtual presidential debate in which voters would have seen both presidential candidates engage with each other. Trump has downplayed the coronavirus ever since he learned that it was a looming threat, and even after contracting the disease, the president has held super-spreader rallies. And the Rose Garden event has proven to be a super-spreader, too.
According to CNN, Biden is set to appear in an ABC town hall, and both events are scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET. Initially, Biden and Trump were set to participate in a second debate. The event was eventually canceled after Trump objected to the virtual format announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates following Trump testing positive for COVID-19.
The one-hour town hall will follow the same format and will air in the time slot as NBC News’ town hall with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden held last Monday, Oct. 5. pic.twitter.com/xQHJihtbkC
— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) October 14, 2020
“The event is set to take place outdoors and in accordance with the guidelines set forth by health officials, also consistent with all government regulations,” Hoda Kotb said on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday.
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While that is true, it’s rather odd to have competing town hall events after the president failed to agree to participate in the second presidential debate. How would this work? Voters can’t watch both town halls at the same time on different networks. And that’s probably what Trump is counting on. Trump is good at one thing: distraction. And he’s flailing in the polls behind Biden, even in battleground states he won in 2016.
What he said:
#BoycottNBC is the top trending topic and they earned it. NBC could’ve scheduled its town hall with Trump LITERALLY any other date/time as the town hall previously scheduled with Biden for Thursday on ABC. But they choose the same time. Then again NBC gave us The Apprentice https://t.co/GICwLniWNW
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) October 14, 2020
The president’s town hall event will be moderated by Savannah Guthrie, who will sit 12 feet away from Trump outdoors at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami. Attendees at the one-hour event will be required to wear face masks. The media needs to stop being a tool used to feed Donald Trump’s narcissistic ego.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
