With Debate Cancelled, Trump And Biden Appear In Dueling Town Halls : NPR

In a unique political split-screen, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden appeared in competing town halls at the same time on Thursday night.

The two were supposed to appear in one event Thursday night, but Trump balked at the decision by debate organizers to hold a virtual town hall due to health and safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The campaign of Biden, the Democratic nominee, then scheduled a town hall on ABC News. Days later, the Republican Trump’s campaign set an event with NBC News.

The first segment of Trump’s town hall, held in Miami, was questions by NBC moderator Savannah Guthrie, before prospective voters got a chance to weigh in. While Trump often sparred with Guthrie during an hour of back and forth, Biden spun out often-lengthy, policy-heavy responses to voter questions and follow-ups from the ABC moderator, George Stephanopoulos, in Philadelphia.

Trump discussed a wide range of topics, including his handling of the coronavirus, which he defended; the times he failed to denounce white supremacists, which he denied; and the question of whether he would agree to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses to Biden, which he again answered obliquely.

“And the answer is yes I will. But I want it to be an honest election and so does everyone else,” said Trump, who has offered unfounded warnings about the integrity of the election.

Trump’s town hall had a number of other contentious moments, including exchanges about his relationship with the QAnon conspiracy theory and a discussion on his tax returns, which were revealed last month in a bombshell New York Times report.

“I know nothing about QAnon,” Trump said during one such exchange, after Guthrie had briefly explained the baseless conspiracy theory: that Trump is battling a “deep state” child sex trafficking ring run by Democrats.

“I know nothing about it. I do know that they are very much against pedophilia,” he continued. “I’ll tell you what I do know about: I know about antifa and I know about the radical left.”

Speaking on his finances and the Times‘ disclosure that he holds debts totaling $421 million, Trump said: “The amount of money, $400 million, is a peanut. It’s extremely under-levered. And it’s levered with normal banks.”

Biden also fielded questions on the pandemic and the economy, as well as fracking, foreign policy and transgender rights.

Notably, Biden made his most extensive comments to date on the question of court packing — the idea promoted by some Democrats to add justices to the Supreme Court should the Senate confirm Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the court this fall.

In recent weeks, Biden had avoided directly answering whether he supports the idea, but Biden this week reiterated that he’s “not a fan.”

“I’m not a fan, but it depends on how this turns out,” Biden said during the town hall. “Not how he wins, but how it’s handled.”

Asked to clarify what he meant by that, Biden said he would make a judgment based on whether a genuine debate can play out on the Senate floor during Barrett’s confirmation process. Pressed further, Biden said he would make his position clear before Election Day, “depending on how they handle this.”

“They do have a right to know where I stand,” Biden said. “They have a right to know where I stand before they vote.”

Biden said “we should be thinking about” making vaccination against the coronavirus mandatory, should a vaccine or vaccines be proven safe and effective, but said he recognized it would be very difficult to enforce vaccination.