United States President Donald Trump says he will boycott the second Presidential debate because it is due to be held virtually. This was after the organisers said that they would arrange a virtual debate as a safety precaution after Trump was infected with Covid-19. The next debate is due to be held on Thursday.
There is precedent for debates to be held virtually. In 1960, presidential candidates John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated ‘virtually’, with Nixon speaking from a studio in Los Angeles and Kennedy from the other side of the country, in New York. Innovative (for the time) split screen technology was used to make it appear that the two men were in the same room. The moderator was also in a different city, controlling the debate from Chicago.
Nevertheless, Trump has said he would not participate. He was quoted as saying: ‘I’m not gonna waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about.’
Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox Business Network on Thursday. In the same interview, he criticised members of his cabinet, notably secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and attorney-general Bill Barr. He also said he may have caught Covid-19 from the family of deceased soldiers who had attended an event at the White House. Trump said they might have stood too close to him and infected him.
Trump trails challenger Joe Biden significantly in polls ahead of next month’s election. FiveThirtyEight, a website which analyses US election polls, gives Biden 52% of the electorate’s support against Trump’s 42%. However, Trump also constantly trailed in polls in 2016, yet managed to win the Presidency by securing key swing states. It remains to be seen whether this will be the case this time.
[Picture: Gage Skidmore, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52081539]