When Allahpundit wrote about the 2nd presidential debate earlier today it already seemed doubtful it was going to happen. The Debate Commission had called for a virtual debate and Trump was pushing for an in-person debate instead. After all the back and forth today the bottom line is that it’s not going to happen:
“On October 8, CPD announced that for the health and safety of all involved, the second presidential debate, scheduled for October 15 in Miami, would be conducted virtually,” the CPD said in a statement, officially announcing the cancellation of the debate. “Subsequently, the campaigns of the two candidates who qualified for participation in the debate made a series of statements concerning their respective positions regarding their willingness to participate in a virtual debate on October 15, and each now has announced alternate plans for that date.”
“It is now apparent there will be no debate on October 15, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for October 22,” the CPD added.
The Biden camp quickly put out a statement saying President Trump was trying to duck questions from voters:
“It’s shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions — but it’s no surprise. Everyone knows that Donald Trump likes to bully reporters, but obviously he doesn’t have the guts to answer for his record to voters at the same time as Vice President Biden.”
For Trump’s part, he retweeted a statement from Bob Dole arguing that while the Debate Commission is bipartisan in the sense that it has both Republicans and Democrats, there is no one on the commission who actually support’s Trump. If true that seems like an pretty obvious problem.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1314702657215365120
You’ll still be able to get your fix of the candidates next Thursday night. Biden has already agreed to do an ABC town hall and Trump is planning to do a similar event with NBC the same night. So instead of a debate next Thursday we’ll have something closer to dueling monologues on different channels.
Finally, the one person who may be celebrating this is scheduled debate moderator Steve Scully who claimed today that his Twitter account was hacked. He reported that to the Debate Commission and they reported it to the FBI which is now investigation.
Steve Scully notified us that his Twitter account was hacked. CPD reported the apparent hack to the FBI and Twitter, and we understand that the federal authorities and Twitter are looking into the issue.
— CPD (@debates) October 9, 2020
Sometime this afternoon, Steve Scully’s Twitter account disappeared. Maybe that was done by Twitter for some technical reason. Maybe it’s part of an FBI investigation. Or maybe this is another Joy Reid situation. Steve Scully might be breathing a sign of relief right now that he’s officially off the hook and so the investigation into his “hacking” no longer matters.
