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Coronavirus: Donald Trump to speak at campaign event in Florida on Monday - but second debate with Biden will not go ahead

Coronavirus: Donald Trump to speak at campaign event in Florida on Monday - but second debate with Biden will not go ahead
Sky News

Donald Trump will speak at an event in Florida on Monday as he returns to the campaign trail after his coronavirus diagnosis - but his second debate with presidential rival Joe Biden will not go ahead.

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced on Thursday that the debate scheduled for 15 October would be conducted virtually for "the health and safety of all involved".

However, the CPD said in a statement on Friday: "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 15 October, and each now has announced alternate plans for that date.

"It is now apparent there will be no debate on 15 October, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for 22 October."

The final debate will take place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, "subject to health security considerations".

Mr Trump's campaign team confirmed on Friday that the president will speak at an event at the Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida on Monday.

The president is also expected to address supporters from a balcony at the White House on Saturday in an event on "law and order", an official said.

That's despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak there and two weeks after the Rose Garden event that is now considered a "superspreader".

Mr Trump's return to the campaign trail will be more conscious of the danger of spreading the illness than prior to his infection.

Supporters at the event in Florida will be given masks that they will be encouraged to wear and access to hand sanitiser, the campaign said, but officials did not reveal if it would be held in a hangar with its doors open, as it has in the past, or entirely outside.

Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday night that he stopped taking medications to combat coronavirus eight hours before the interview.

He said: "Right now I'm medication free. I'm not taking any medications as of, you know, probably eight hours ago."

Mystery surrounds whether Mr Trump is still contagious and White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said medical tests will ensure that when the president is back out he will not be able to transmit the virus.

"He won't be out there if he can transmit the virus," she said.

The White House had earlier said the US president was keen to return to campaigning ahead of the presidential election, and that he would likely be tested for COVID-19 again.

With less than a month to go before the vote on 3 November, the US president is trailing in the polls behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

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Mr Trump, who was diagnosed with coronavirus on 1 October and spent three days in hospital, told Fox News he was likely to be tested for the virus later on Friday.

"He wants to talk to the American people, and he wants to be out there," Ms McEnany told Fox News.

"Logistically, whether tomorrow's possible, it would be tough. It'd be a decision up to the campaign."

Mr Trump's personal physician said the president would be able to safely return to public engagements this weekend.

In a memo, his doctor, Sean Conley, said: "Saturday will be day 10 since Thursday's diagnosis, and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has done, I expect the president's safe return to public engagement at that time."

But aides admitted he was unlikely to hold any in-person events until at least Monday.