President Donald Trump will take part in an NBC News town hall event in Miami Thursday night, competing with a similar televised event Democratic nominee Joe Biden is set to participate in. The dueling events are in lieu of a second presidential debate, which was officially canceled by the Commission on Presidential Debates following the president’s coronavirus diagnosis and squabbles over the debate’s format.
Set to be held outdoors at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, according to NBC News, Trump’s Thursday night town hall will be moderated by Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. During the hour-long event, Guthrie will lead a conversation between Trump and a group of Florida voters. The town hall will also adhere to public health guidelines, with Trump and Guthrie being at least 12 feet apart not only from each other, but also the audience, members of whom will be social distanced “and required to wear face masks, answer a symptoms questionnaire and take a temperature check prior to entering the outdoor venue.”
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The event had previously been teased, but was said to be under the condition that Trump tested negative for coronavirus. National Institutes of Health Clinical Director Clifford Lane said in a statement to NBC News that “he and Dr. Anthony Fauci have reviewed Trump’s recent medical data, including a PCR test collected and analyzed by NIH on Tuesday, and have concluded ‘with a high degree of confidence’ that the president is ‘not shedding infectious virus.’”
The one-hour event is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, the same time that Biden’s town hall is set to begin on ABC. That event, to be held in Philadelphia, will be moderated by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. Spanning 90 minutes, Stephanopoulos will moderate a conversation between the former vice president and voters, who will have the opportunity to ask Biden questions.
The events are taking the place of the canceled presidential debate, which would have seen Trump and Biden facing off for the second time. After the president objected to new plans for a virtual format following his coronavirus diagnosis, the debate was canceled altogether. The next and final debate is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The commission said that the debate is “subject to health security considerations, and in accordance with all required testing, masking, social distancing, and other protocols.” The debate will be moderated by NBC News journalist Kristen Welker.
