White House pushes to hold next week’s canceled debate
A White House spokesman on Sunday called for a canceled in-person debate between President TrumpDonald John TrumpNorth Korea unveils large intercontinental ballistic missile at military parade Trump no longer considered a risk to transmit COVID-19, doctor says New ad from Trump campaign features Fauci MORE and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden
Joe BidenDemocratic poll shows neck-and-neck race brewing in Florida House district Nebraska district could prove pivotal for Biden in November Bringing Black men back home MORE to be rescheduled after the president’s physician said Saturday that Trump was no longer at risk of transmitting COVID-19 to others.
White House deputy communications director Brian Morgenstern said Sunday that a previously-planned debate on Oct. 15 should take place, CNN reported.
“The President is ready to debate and his doctors have cleared him for participating in public engagements,” Morgenstern told reporters at the White House Sunday. “They’ve said he’s no longer a risk for transmission so it would be nice if the commission would get the debate back on the schedule.”
That follows a memo released by the Trump administration a day earlier in which White House physician Sean Conley said that he was “happy to report that in addition to the President meeting the CDC criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning’s COVID PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognized standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others.”
The Biden campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Commission on Presidential Debates on Friday canceled Thursday’s debate after a day of back-and-forth between the campaigns over the event’s format.
The commission on Thursday morning announced it was shifting the debate from an in-person town hall-style format to a virtual debate. Trump refused the virtual format and proposed delaying both remaining debates by a week,