With the second presidential debate canceled after Trump's refusal to participate remotely, Biden and Trump hosted their own town hall style events.
Biden's event was hosted in Philadelphia with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, while Trump took part in a similar event moderated by NBC News' Savannah Guthrie. The decision to have both events scheduled at the same time came under fire from top talent, Deadline reports. Names that have called for the Trump town hall, which was announced after Biden's event, to be rescheduled include Seth Rogen, Ava DuVernay, and Seth MacFarlane among others.
Just before Trump was due to participate in his Town Hall event, the President attacked NBC News in a tweet. "I will be doing a major Fake @NBCNews Town Hall Forum, live tonight from Miami at 8:00 P.M.," he wrote. "They asked me to do it in place of the Rigged Steve Scully (he is now suspended from @cspan for lying) Debate. I wonder if they'll treat me as well as Sleepy Joe? They should!" He also suggested it was NBC's fault for the scheduling conflict, not him.
During his bizarre and hostile town hall event on NBC, Trump, who repeated falsehood after falsehood, clashed with Savannah Guthrie when the moderator brought up the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. "I just don’t know about QAnon," Trump said, to which Guthrie responded by reminding him she just explained the basic premise of the conspiracy theory to him.
Pres. Trump: “That was a retweet, I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves.”@SavannahGuthrie: “I don’t get that. You’re the president. You’re not, like, someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.” #TrumpTownHall pic.twitter.com/qxTi9BNJjb
CNN reports that Biden's town hall garnered more viewers than Trump's with 14.1 million people tuning in. On the flip side, Trump's town hall, which was broadcast on three channels while Biden's was only brodacast on one, had 10.6 million viewers on NBC and 13.1 million when combined with the other two channels.
The second debate was originally scheduled for Oct. 15, but plans shifted somewhat after Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19. The Commission on Presidential Debates made the decision to cancel the debate earlier this month after it had suggested conducting a virtual debate, which Trump was against. "That's not what debating is all about," he said.
You can watch both of the events above.
