by Nomad
Former Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will be participating in a town hall held in Philadelphia this evening. As per the town hall format, the event will allow voters to ask questions directly to the candidate.
The backstory to this particular "debate" will no doubt become a historical footnote in the sorry Trump saga. After agreeing to three presidential debates, Trump balked at the virtual format of this second debate. (The change in the format by the debate organizers came, it should be pointed out, as a result of the president's Covid-19 infection. Not only the President but the First Lady, and a large number of Trump's staff.)
In any case, the end result was that Trump refused to take part. "Absolutely no way" was his position on the matter. Said Trump:
"You sit behind a computer and do a debate - it’s ridiculous and then they cut you off whenever they want.'
In the real world, Trump was heavily criticized after the first debate, for regularly over-talking and interrupting and for generally failing to follow the agreed-upon rules. (The vice-presidential debates were hardly any better.)
However, seeing that a one-sided question-and-answer would go on with or without the Republican president 's attendance, Trump backpedaled. And true to form, Trump decided that he would hold his own town hall on NBC at the same time as Biden's event.
According to CNN, the network was widely criticized for the decision.
So now NBC is "giving Trump exactly what he wants," in the words of one exasperated senior staffer: a made-by-TV rivalry between the president and Biden.
NBC is hearing a chorus of criticism for its scheduling decision -- from liberal activists, working journalists, professors, former NBC executives, and even some current NBC Entertainment stars.
Some staffers inside NBC News and MSNBC are also perturbed by the decision, with some likening it to collusion between the Trump campaign and the network, sources said. No one from the news division has publicly criticized the move.
Mother Jones noted that whatever ratings boost NBC might receive from hosting a Trump town hall, it is unlikely to result in any real political advantage for Trump.
Watching and voting are, after all, two very different things.
But while NBC can take a preemptive victory lap, a ratings bump may not correlate to a boost in Trump’s standing in the polls. His last town-hall-style event, where he stumbled, prevaricated, and lied through his meeting with undecided voters, bombed. That was less than a month ago, both before his first disastrous debate performance and testing positive for the coronavirus, and things have only gotten much worse.
So, that begs the question- the perennial question of these tumultuous times - what the hell is Trump thinking?
CNN's Chris Cillizza offers his own theory in this video.
Not sure, if I agree. But what do you think?
With Trump holding potentially-infectious rallies with his die-hard base and softball interviews with Fox News, Trump doesn't appear to be interested in a developing a winning strategy. Meanwhile, challenger Biden leads in nationwide opinion polls. Those polls- much to the chagrin of Trump re-election campaign staff- show a tighter race in many of the battleground states that may decide the election.
* * *
Tonight's Biden town hall will be hosted by ABC News and moderated by George Stephanopoulos. It will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and will adhere to state and local health and safety guidelines.
As a courtesy to our Nomadic community, we will be carrying it live, starting at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Come and join the lively discussion.
Please note: This video doesn't allow sharing to other sites, unfortunately. However, it will link to Youtube which should allow access.
Apologies for that.