{"id":17156,"date":"2020-10-16T12:08:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T07:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/?p=17156"},"modified":"2020-10-16T12:08:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T07:08:59","slug":"biden-says-he-plans-to-attend-final-debate-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/17156","title":{"rendered":"Biden says he plans to attend final debate with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Democratic nominee Joe Biden said Thursday he fully plans to attend next week’s final presidential debate with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The men held dueling town halls Thursday evening after Trump rejected the debate committee’s plan to hold the forum virtually after the president tested positive for COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would insist Trump take a coronavirus test the same day as next week’s debate, Biden said “Yeah. By the way, before I came up here, I took another test.”<\/p>\n

According to Anadolu news, Biden said\u00a0 “I have been taking them every day,” told the News broadcaster town hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “I\u2019m going to abide by what the commission rules call for. I was prepared to debate him remotely, which was supposed to happen, and he said he wouldn\u2019t do that, a virtual debate or a town hall. He didn\u2019t want to do that. I didn\u2019t set those rules, the commission set those rules.”<\/p>\n

Speaking during a separate town hall in Miami, Florida, Trump said he could not recall if he took a COVID test on Sept. 29 when the first debate was held. Asked whether he knew if he got tested that day, Trump said: “Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t.”<\/p>\n

Trump tested positive on Oct. 1 along with first lady Melania Trump after one of his aides, Hope Hicks, was diagnosed with the virus.<\/p>\n

Asked if he gets tested daily for the disease, Trump said he is tested “a lot.”<\/p>\n

“I was in great shape for the debate, and some time after the debate, I tested positive,” he added.<\/p>\n

The final debate is scheduled for Oct. 22, just a week and a half before Election Day.<\/p>\n

Mean while,\u00a0 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Thursday that while he is “not a fan” of adding additional justices to the US Supreme Court, he would not rule out the idea amid an ongoing row over President Donald Trump’s third nominee to the top court.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
U.S. Supreme Court Building Photo Courtesy supremecourt.gov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking during a town hall forum in Philadelphia, the former vice president said he is open to more fully expanding on his position before the US’s Nov. 3 presidential election, dependent on how the Republican-controlled Senate handles Amy Coney Barrett’s ongoing confirmation process.<\/p>\n

“It depends on how this turns out, not how he wins, but how it’s handled,” he said during the News broadcaster town hall briefing. “It depends on how much they rush this.”<\/p>\n

The number of justices on America’s top court is established by the US Congress, which has set the number at nine for over 150 years. The idea of “packing” the top court, or adding additional justices, has been balked at by both parties when they lead the federal legislature for fear of retribution when control shifts.<\/p>\n

But it has gained traction among some Democrats following Barrett’s nomination.<\/p>\n

The Senate Judiciary Committee is near-certain to refer Barrett’s nomination to the full chamber next week, when the panel’s majority Republicans are expected to vote unanimously in favor.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he has the votes to confirm Barrett’s nomination in the Senate, where only two of the chamber’s 53 Republicans have said they oppose filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the presidential election.<\/p>\n

GOP senators \u2014 Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) \u2014 have so far opposed the plans, but only Collins said she would vote against a nominee if it is brought up before Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

Barrett’s confirmation would cement a decidedly conservative 6-3 majority on America’s top court.<\/p>\n

She would be Trump’s third nominee to be confirmed following Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n

That is largely due to McConnell’s thwarting of former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. Garland’s nomination was held in a holding pattern for nearly a year as McConnell insisted then it would be inappropriate for the nomination to go forward ahead of the presidential election that year.<\/p>\n

McConnell has since gone back on his position following Ginsburg’s death in September, vowing Trump’s nominee would receive a vote by Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u00a0 Democratic nominee Joe Biden said Thursday he fully plans to attend next week’s final presidential debate with President Donald Trump. The men held dueling town halls Thursday evening after Trump rejected the debate committee’s plan to hold the forum virtually after the president tested positive for COVID-19. Asked if he would insist Trump take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17157,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17156\/revisions\/17157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}