By Trevor Hunnicutt
HAGERSTOWN, MD. , (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Tuesday that next week’s debate with Republican President Donald Trump will not take a position if Trump is still inflamed with COVID-19.
Biden said the October 15 debate in Miami will only take place under strict fitness rules and called the coronavirus outbreak that affected Trump and a wave of other White House officials a “very serious problem. “
“If you still have COVID, we have a debate,” Biden told reporters after a pre-trial crusade in Pennsylvania.
“I’m not sure what President Trump is right now. I don’t know what his prestige is. I look forward to discussing it, but I just hope that all the protocols will be followed,” Biden said.
When asked about Biden’s comments, Trump crusade spokesman Tim Murtaugh said: “President Trump will be healthy and there. There’s no way out for Biden, and his media protectors can’t control him. “
After days of conflicting messages from doctors and assistants about his condition, 74-year-old Trump returned to the White House on Monday after three nights in the hospital. His doctor said Tuesday that Trump had not reported symptoms of COVID-19 and that he was “extremely well. “”
The general quarantine era to test positive for the new coronavirus is 14 days. Trump announced his positive control on Friday.
But the disease continues to spread among Trump’s most sensitive advisers, Chief White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller, who said he tested positive on Tuesday.
“Too many other people have been infected. This is a very serious problem, so they will guide me through the rules of the Cleveland Clinic and what the documents say is the right thing to do,” Biden said of his participation in the debate.
The 77-year-old former vice president tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday, a week after sharing a debate with Trump in Cleveland.
Vice President Mike Pence and Biden Vice President Kamala Harris will hold their Wednesday debate in Salt Lake City.
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been in the process ofBut it’s not the first time They said it’s wise for Pence to participate in the debate because he’s not in close contact with anyone with COVID-19, Trump added.
‘PARTISAN WAR’
Early Tuesday, Biden delivered a speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, about one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War and said that, as president, he would put politics aside and seek to heal the racial, political, and economic divisions that are unfolding in the country. .
Biden did not invoke Trump’s call but said the country is in a “total and relentless partisan war” that has ha4ed the fight against the coronavirus that killed another 210,000 people in the United States and claimed millions more in jobs.
“Let’s put aside partisanship. Let’s end politics. Let’s get on with the science. Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It’s a clinical recommendation,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s repeated refusal to wear a mask for his protection even after he viruses.
“What we want in America is leadership that seeks to calm tensions, open lines of communication, and unite,” he said. “As president, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. “
Biden chose a spectacular location for the speech, delivering it near the Gettysburg battlefield, where the Union Army repelled Confederate infantrymen in 1863, a turning point in the Civil War.
It was also there that President Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic Gettysburg address, raising the Declaration of Independence of the United States, which proclaimed that all peoples are created equal, a speech to which Biden has continually referred.
National opinion polls show biden has a stable advantage over Trump before Election Day on November 3, the advantage has been narrower in some very important states on the battlefield.
In Pennsylvania, which Trump narrowly beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, a Reuters/Ipsos vote conducted from September 29 to October 5 showed Biden a five-point lead over Trump, which corresponds to the voting’s credibility interval.
(Report via Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional report via Steve Holland; Written through John Whitesides; Edited through Howard Goller and Peter Cooney)