debate

White House pushes to hold next week’s canceled debate

By [email protected]_84 8 months ago

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 BidenJoe 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,

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Trump to resume campaigning; second debate canceled

By [email protected]_84 8 months ago

By Jeff Mason, Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will resume in-person campaigning on Saturday after being sidelined by a case of COVID-19, but a debate next week against his presidential election opponent Joe Biden was canceled because Trump refused to participate.

Trump will address a crowd of supporters on Saturday from a White House balcony on a “law and order” theme, an administration official said on Friday. A source familiar with the situation said the crowd could be in the hundreds, and all were expected to wear masks.

Then the Republican president will travel on Monday to central Florida, a state crucial to his hopes of winning a second term in the Nov. 3 election.

He will stage his first campaign rally since his coronavirus diagnosis at an airport in the town of Sanford. The campaign did not disclose if it would be held in a hangar with doors open, as it has in the past, or entirely outside.

As the president prepared to return to the trail, the body that oversees presidential debates said the match-up between Trump and Biden, the Democratic candidate, scheduled for Oct. 15 had been formally canceled.

Trump refused to participate in what was supposed to be the second of three debates with Biden after the Commission on Presidential Debates switched it to a virtual contest in the wake of the president’s illness.

The final debate on Oct. 22 is still set to take place.

Questions remain about whether Trump, who announced on Oct. 2 he had the virus and spent three nights in a military hospital, is still contagious. Trump told Fox News he was likely to be tested for the virus on Friday.

The illness has kept him from holding public rallies and attending fundraisers at a critical juncture

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Economy, COVID dominate state House debate in Greenwich

By [email protected]_84 8 months ago

GREENWICH — With a crowded slate of six candidates — who all practiced social distancing — the three races for the state House of Representatives in Greenwich were all combined into one debate Thursday night.

The League of Women Voters of Greenwich hosted the debate at Town Hall and streamed it via Zoom.

The match-ups saw Republican Kimberly Fiorello and Democrat Kathleen Stowe face off in the 149th District, which includes part of Stamford; incumbent Democrat Stephen Meskers and Republican challenger Joe Kelly in the 150th District; and incumbent Republican Harry Arora and Democratic challenger Hector Arzeno in the 151st District.

Under the format, the six candidates were part of the same debate. Issues like the economy, transportation and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic dominated as they were asked the same questions.

All had time for reply but the format did not allow for much back and forth dialogue between the opponents. But on the topic of small business in the state, the candidates were in big agreement.

Stowe, vice chair of the Greenwich Board of Education, said she could speak personally about the opportunity for Connecticut as New Yorkers relocate here during the pandemic. She said the goal should be to persuade the new residents to stay — and to get businesses to move to Connecticut, too. Stowe, who has a background in investment banking and private equity, runs a financial technology company with her father. She said they were planning on leaving New York and possibly relocating their business to Connecticut.

“Once people see how wonderful Connecticut is they’ll want to stay here,” she said. “Businesses always come and they stay where they’re welcomed. … As a state, we should be recruiting companies just like mine. We have the key ingredients, but we need to enhance it with

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Trump struggles to project a sense of normalcy after canceled debate

By [email protected]_84 8 months ago

“I want you to get the same care that I got,” Trump said in a video message to senior citizens released Thursday afternoon on Twitter. “You’re going to get the same medicine — you’re going to get it free, no charge.”

But the president’s attempts to depict a back-to-normal presidency were punctured when the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Thursday morning that next week’s scheduled town hall meeting with Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would take place virtually rather than in person.

The commission’s move came amid uncertainty over Trump’s infectiousness, given his recent diagnosis and hospitalization with the deadly virus. Trump immediately lashed out, telling Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that he would not participate in a “ridiculous” virtual debate.

The commission’s decision seemed to spark a frenzy of aggressive acrimony from Trump, and claims that were notable even by the president’s standards.

During his hourlong interview with Bartiromo, Trump twice called Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris a “monster,” made baseless spying accusations against his predecessor and attacked several members of his own Cabinet.

He claimed that federal law enforcement was “watching” the Nevada governor and an unidentified New Mexico official for potential voter fraud as he continued to assail voting by mail as inherently corrupt.

He also continued to downplay the pandemic, describing that the virus that has killed more than 212,000 Americans as little more than an inconvenience.

“And, remember this, when you catch it, you get better. And then you’re immune, you know?” Trump said, adding that he believed he could have recovered from his sickness without the cocktail of multiple drugs he received.

By the end of Trump’s tour-de-force, Vice President Pence’s performance at his debate the night before had become little more than an afterthought and, for many Republicans, a fleeting

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Pence’s negative COVID test could be “meaningless” for debate, doctor says

By [email protected]_84 8 months ago

The vice presidential debate is set to get underway Wednesday evening with extra COVID-19 safety measures in place, but one doctor is questioning whether that will be enough as the virus outbreak at the White House continues to grow.



Mike Pence wearing a suit and tie: White House Coronavirus Task Force Speaks To The Media In Daily Briefing

© / Getty Images
White House Coronavirus Task Force Speaks To The Media In Daily Briefing

“More layers of protection are so important,” Dr. Neeta Ogden said Wednesday on CBSN. “It’s not just Pence, it’s the team that he’s traveling with, it’s the exposure on a daily basis.”

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The vice president’s physician announced that Pence took a PCR coronavirus test Tuesday afternoon that came back negative. And the White House said Pence and his wife both tested negative again Wednesday in Salt Lake City, where the debate is being held. But as Ogden points out, test results only reflect a specific moment in time and don’t guarantee an infection won’t develop later. 

“Just because he’s had a daily antigen test, intermittent PCR tests, is meaningless if he continues to interact with other people on his team or anybody else in the world — we don’t know what their COVID status is,” she said. 

Since President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis last week, a growing number of staffers within the White House, and several members of the press corps, have tested positive for the virus. Senior adviser to the president Stephen Miller, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, three of her deputies and Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien are just some of those close to the executive branch that have tested positive. Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, who serves as Pence’s communications director, tested negative on Tuesday; she had coronavirus back in May, but she left Salt Lake City out of an abundance of caution.

Doctor on FDA’s COVID vaccine guidelines and

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