Fate of presidential debates up in the air as Trump, Biden teams disagree over proposals

The fate of the final debates between U.S. President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden was thrown into uncertainty Thursday as the campaigns offered duelling proposals for moving forward with a process that has been upended by the president's coronavirus infection.

By Thursday afternoon, it was unclear when or how the next debates would proceed, or whether voters would even get to see the two men running for the White House on the same stage again before election day.

The whipsaw day began with the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates saying the second debate between the presidential candidates would take place virtually amid the fallout from Trump's diagnosis of COVID-19 — a change denounced by the incumbent.

"I'm not going to do a virtual debate," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business.

The commission said the candidates were to "participate from separate remote locations" on Oct. 15 "in order to protect the health and safety of all involved with the second presidential debate."

WATCH l Biden's reaction to apparent Trump rejection of debate format:

Biden will listen to debate commission's recommendations, doesn't know what Trump will do

4 years ago

Duration 0:17

Reacting to Donald Trump's comment that he won't be attending the virtual debate, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says Trump changes his mind every second, and he is unsure what the president will ultimately do.

Biden suggested the event be delayed a week until Oct. 22, which is when the third and final debate is already scheduled.

Trump then countered again, agreeing to a debate on Oct. 22 — but only if face to face — and asking that a third contest be added on Oct. 29, just before the election. But Biden rejected squaring off that late in the campaign.

ABC News announced later it would host its own town hall where Biden will answer questions from voters on national television in Philadelphia next Thursday.

For Trump, who is recovering from COVID-19 at the White House after spending three days in the hospital, all the talk of contagiousness is an unwelcome disruption to his effort to shift focus away from a virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans this year.

In an interview with Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo shortly after the commission's announcement, Trump insisted he was in "great shape" and called the idea of a virtual debate a "joke."

"That's not what debating's all about," he said. "You sit behind a computer and do a debate. That's ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want."

But it's not unprecedented for candidates to appear from separate locations. John F. Kennedy participated from New York and Richard Nixon from Los Angeles in one of their four debates in 1960, with the moderator located in Chicago.

There is also precedent for a president skipping a debate. Jimmy Carter chose not to participate in a September 1980 debate in which independent candidate John Anderson was invited but took part the following month in a two-person debate with Republican Ronald Reagan.

During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump boycotted the last debate before Iowa's first-in-the nation's caucuses, holding a fundraiser for veterans instead.

Trump campaign floats idea of rally

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who is among several people associated with the president to test positive for the coronavirus, said that safety could be ensured at a debate with both candidates on the same stage.

"We'll pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead."

LISTEN l Analysis of the Pence-Harris VP debate:

Front Burner21:34Aging Presidential candidates loom over VP debate

Last night, Vice-Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris faced off in their one and only debate of the 2020 campaign. The debate comes less than a week after Donald Trump was diagnosed with coronavirus, and in a race between the two oldest presidential candidates in US history. Today, CBC Washington Correspondent Katie Simpson recaps the unusually significant VP debate.

'I don't think I'm contagious': Trump

After a rash of positive tests emanating from the White House and the administration's unwillingness to reveal specifics of the timeline of Trump's diagnosis, the Biden camp has wondered if the president was displaying symptoms at the first debate.

The lack of specifics did not satisfy House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who addressed Trump directly at the end of her weekly news conference on Thursday.

"Mr. President, when was the last time you had a negative test before you tested positive? Why is the White House not telling the country that important fact about how this spread made a hot spot of the White House?" she said.

Trump was still contagious with the virus when he was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday, but his doctors have not provided any detailed update on his status.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 can be contagious for up to 10 days and should isolate accordingly.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine react:

Trump said in the Fox interview he's feeling better and that he has stopped taking "most therapeutics" but is still taking steroids during his treatment.

"I don't think I'm contagious at all," he said.

It had been variously reported that Trump was being administered the steroid dexamethasone, the antiviral drug remdesivir and Regeneron's REGN-COV2 drug cocktail.