Biden and Trump won’t debate tonight. Here’s how it fell apart.

Last year,  before we even knew who would be the Democratic presidential nominee, the Commission on Presidential Debates scheduled the second of three presidential debates for tonight.

But last week, the commission canceled the event between President Trump and Joe Biden after the President declined to do a virtual debate despite concerns over his Covid-19 diagnosis, organizers said.

Instead of meeting on the same debate stage and directly taking on each other, Biden and Trump will hold individual town halls — both at 8 p.m. ET. Trump’s will air at NBC and Biden’s will be on ABC.

Here’s how we got here: The Commission on Presidential Debates last week announced it was shifting to a virtual debate due to concerns about coronavirus, particularly after Trump’s positive diagnosis with the virus.

Shortly after, the President announced he would not participate in a virtual debate. The Trump campaign then proposed delaying the the town hall debate a week, and pushing the third and final debate a week as well. Biden’s campaign rejected that proposal, and in the meantime, Biden booked a town hall on ABC.

After Trump released letters from his doctor clearing him to resume public activity, his campaign pushed for the in-person debate to be reinstated.

The commission officially canceled the debate last Friday. NBC on Wednesday announced it would hold a town hall with Trump at the same time as Biden’s ABC event.