Second presidential debate now cancelled after Trump refused to take part

Organisers cancel event after president refuses to participate virtually

The Commission on Presidential Debates has cancelled plans for a debate on 15 October following Donald Trump’s refusal to join a virtual event.

The organisation changed the format for the second debate from an in-person event, traditionally held as a town hall answering questions from voters, to a virtual one, after the president was hospitalised with the coronavirus and more than a dozen people from his inner circle tested positive for Covid-19 within the last week.

But the president and his campaign balked at the idea and called instead to postpone the two remaining debates by a week.

“It's shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions – but it's no surprise,” Joe Biden’s campaign said in a statement.

The president will resume in-person campaigning on Saturday with an outdoors event at the White House and at a rally in Florida on Monday. He was hospitalised last Friday and returned to the White House on 5 October.

Following the announcement of a virtual event, the candidates’ campaigns “made a series of statements concerning their respective positions regarding their willingness to participate,” according to a statement from the commission.

“It is now apparent there will be no debate on 15 October, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate” scheduled to be held on 22 October in Nashville, the statement said.

Prior to the announcement, the president – speaking on the Mark Levin Show on Friday afternoon – called the commission “a Clinton-Obama group of people” that is a “crooked deal”.

“And now they have a Never Trumper, I didn’t know too much of this guy from C-SPAN,” he said in reference to moderator Steve Scully, who was set to host the 15 October debate.

 “This debate commission, it sounds so good … sounds so wonderful," the president said. "In my opinion, it’s a crooked deal. You look at the guy they gave me for the next debate. He’s a Never Trumper.”

His campaign’s communications director Tim Murtaugh said it would “be glad to debate one-on-one without the commission’s interference.”

The president has not held a campaign rally since 30 September in Minnesota, after which his senior aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for the disease on 1 October. The president announced that he had tested positive along with First Lady Melania Trump later that night, after he had attended a New Jersey fundraiser.

He spent three nights at Walter Reed Medical Center reportedly receiving a variety of experimental drug therapies to combat the infection, though White House officials and physician Dr Sean Conley have avoided answering specific questions about the state of his heath, including when he received his last negative Covid-19 test.

The president’s campaign argued on Thursday that there is “no medical reason” why the commission “should shift to a virtual setting, postpone it, or otherwise alter it in any way.”

Campaign manager Bill Stepien suggested that in-person debates be moved to 22 and 29 October.

In response, the Biden campaign said: "Trump doesn't make the debate schedule; the Debate Commission does. We accepted the three dates … in June. … Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar."