President Trump scored a town hall meeting with NBC News, directly competing with one scheduled on ABC News for Joe Biden.
The dueling town halls will take place Thursday night at 8pm Eastern.
Originally, the second presidential debate was supposed to take place.
The October 15th debate had been thrown up in the air after President Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis, though he has since been cleared to appear.
Still, the Commission on Presidential Debates sought to change it to a virtual format.
They would eventually cancel it outright, prompting both campaigns to seek alternative means to get their message out to the American people.
NBC News will host a town hall with Republican presidential nominee President Donald Trump tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. ET in Miami.
READ MORE ⬇️https://t.co/Szx7V0p6hs
— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) October 14, 2020
RELATED: Axios Analysis Shows How The Media Obsession With Trump Is Allowing Biden To Escape Scrutiny
How the Second Debate Turned Into a Dueling Town Hall Showdown
Trump refused to take part in a virtual town hall, claiming it would provide an opportunity for his opponent to use teleprompters, or whatever other means to answer questions.
The President called it “a non-starter” as it “would clearly be a gift to Biden because he would be relying on his teleprompter from his basement bunker.”
The debate further ran into issues when moderator Steve Scully, a former intern for Biden, had a tweet sent from his account to Anthony Scaramucci regarding President Trump.
Scully claimed his account was hacked, prompting critics to cry foul.
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
Biden and ABC announced their plans shortly thereafter, prompting Trump’s campaign to find another way to compete with the former Vice President in a head-to-head matchup.
RELATED: Second Debate Moderator Steve Scully Posts Strange Tweet About Trump, C-SPAN Claims He Was Hacked
Could This Help Trump?
Competing head-to-head against Biden will almost assuredly mean more viewers for the Trump town hall and NBC.
Flipping back and forth between the two events will demonstrate to the American people the difference in how moderator Savannah Guthrie (NBC) and George Stephanopoulos (ABC), a former Clinton insider, treat the respective candidates.
Another sign that this will be beneficial to Trump – the liberal meltdown over NBC daring to air his town hall opposite that of Biden.
Yes, we’re going to boycott NBC News for rewarding Donald Trump with this illegitimate town hall. We’re going after NBC’s advertisers. We’re going to get Savannah Guthrie fired. This is scorched earth war. The stakes are too important for it not to be.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) October 14, 2020
Shame on @NBC. Y’all sign my checks as of late but I‘m disgusted by my home network giving Trump a platform for fear mongering, bigotry & disinformation. Don’t praise yourselves for putting a trans woman on primetime then give a platform to someone who wants to abolish my rights.
— Shakina (@Shakeenz) October 14, 2020
NBC is rewarding Trump for his irresponsible behavior. He just got out of the hospital with coronavirus, still hasn’t been wearing a mask, and has been spreading lies and misinformation about Covid-19 at daily campaign rallies with no social distancing. https://t.co/pFCdc59Wt3
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 14, 2020
CNN reports that Guthrie will sit 12 feet away from the President while attendees will be required to wear face masks.
The first presidential debate was widely considered a chaotic mess, as moderator Chris Wallace struggled to assume control.
The ensuing disaster caused media outlets to report that Trump had lost.
Still, he managed to get Biden to denounce support for the Green New Deal, hammered the former Vice President for saying he’d shut down the economy again, and stumped him when challenged to name one law enforcement group that supports the Democrat.
The third debate, scheduled for October 22nd, remains up in the air.
