TRUMP BOYCOTTS VIRTUAL DEBATE FORMAT WITH BIDEN

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will not participate in the second presidential debate with Joe Biden after the Commission on Presidential Debates said the event will be held virtually in the wake of the President's positive coronavirus diagnosis. "I am not going to do a virtual debate," Trump said on Fox Business. "I am not going to waste my time on a virtual debate," Dan Merica, Kevin Bohn and Chandelis Duster reported for CNN.

But Trump's comment throws the debate into question after the commission took the significant step to wholly remake the event. The move was seen as needed by members of the debate commission given the uncertainty around the President's health since he technically has to be quarantined for 14 days after being confined at the Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment of his COVID-19 infection.

"The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations," the commission said in a statement about the debate, which is scheduled to be held on October 15 in a town hall format. The commission went on to say that the debate moderator, Steve Scully, and the attendees who will ask Trump and Biden questions will appear from Miami, the original site of the debate. Biden's campaign on Thursday swiftly agreed to the virtual format.

Neither the Biden nor Trump campaigns was consulted about the change in format. Bill Stepien, Trump's campaign manager who also suffers from COVID-19 infection, accused the commission on Thursday of "unilaterally canceling an in-person debate" to help Biden and said the President will be holding a rally instead of attending the debate, which, of course, could become another superspreader event. A Biden campaign adviser told CNN they also learned Thursday morning about the commission's announcement.