In visit to NC, Eric Trump says virtual debate would let Biden ‘cheat’ against president

Campaigning Thursday in North Carolina, Eric Trump defended his father’s decision to opt out of a virtual presidential debate next week, charging that former Vice President Joe Biden would “probably cheat” if the two candidates weren’t standing side by side on a stage.

The younger Trump, second son of Republican President Donald Trump, said during a phone interview with the Observer that if there is “a Zoom call” rather than an in-person debate, “You know (Biden) would have had 12 people behind the cameras with flash cards and three teleprompters telling him what to say. ... Listen, Biden’s a coward. He’s been doing everything he can to get out of this debate.”

But it was the Commission on Presidential Debates, citing concerns about the coronavirus, that announced plans to change the candidates’ second debate on Oct. 15, from an on-stage encounter in Miami to a virtual face-off.

The commission acted after President Trump was recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and Biden said the town hall-style debate should be called off if the president still has the virus next week. The president spent last weekend in the hospital and returned to the White House Monday night.

The president, first lady, several White House officials and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina have been recovering from the coronavirus since the Sept. 26 Rose Garden ceremony at the White House for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“No, I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate,” President Trump told Fox Business on Thursday. His campaign later said he would have a campaign rally on Oct. 15 instead.

Biden, meanwhile, will spend that night doing a town hall with voters on ABC, hosted by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Eric Trump said Stephanopoulos “will ask him softball questions,” he said, pointing out that the ABC newsman’s job in the 1990s was press secretary to Democratic President Bill Clinton.

“People want to see (presidential candidates debate in-person). People want to see your mannerisms. People want to see how you interact with the other person.”

But the president’s constant interruptions of Biden in the first debate on Sept. 29 was widely criticized, even by some Republicans, and appear to have contributed to Trump’s decreasing poll numbers.

The Biden campaign responded to Eric Trump’s comments, saying the president is afraid to debate on Oct. 15.

“Joe Biden was prepared to accept the (debate commission’s) proposal for a virtual Town Hall, but the President has refused, as Donald Trump clearly does not want to face questions from the voters about his failures on COVID and the economy,” Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.

“As a result, Joe Biden will find an appropriate place to take questions from voters directly on October 15th, as he has done on several occasions in recent weeks,” Bedingfield continued. “Given the President’s refusal to participate on October 15th, we hope the Debate Commission will move the Biden-Trump Town Hall to October 22nd, so that the President is not able to evade accountability.”

Trump will ‘be back a lot’ to North Carolina

Eric Trump, whose wife, Lara, is from Wrightsville Beach, and daughter is named Carolina, met with Trump supporters Thursday. The campaign events were held on a farm in Monroe and at a machine plant in Whitsett, a town in Guilford County.

During the interview with The Observer, Trump couldn’t say whether his father would hold that announced Oct. 15 rally in North Carolina.

“I’d love it to be (here) and my father would love it to be, as well,” he said.

Trump has visited the battleground state of North Carolina five times since late August, starting with the Republican National Convention. His most recent visit was Sept. 24 in Charlotte, just days before the Rose Garden ceremony, when he met with health care workers at a warehouse near the Charlotte Douglas International Airport

But Eric Trump predicted the president would “be back a lot” to the Tar Heel State before Election Day.

His son told the Observer that “the rallies are going to start,” but not until Trump gets the green light from doctors.

“Believe me, the doctors are going to wait till he’s perfect and can be cleared and he’s getting COVID tests and getting negative (results),” Eric Trump said. “But the guy feels great and sounds great and he’s ready to go.”

Crowds without masks

President Trump’s past campaign rallies have drawn big cheering crowds, but relatively few of the participants have worn masks, and there is little to no social distancing. Trump has mocked Biden for always wearing a mask and holding smaller events, with supporters seated at a distance.

But it was the Trump family that was criticized for taking off their masks while attending the first presidential debate, held indoors in Cleveland. The moderator, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, even accused the family members of acting as if the rules outlined for the audience by the Cleveland Clinic didn’t apply to them.

Eric Trump defended his family, saying they all had been tested and that there was social distancing. “(Those in charge) took temperatures of every single person that went in,” he said. “The chairs were six or seven feet apart. ... We wore masks when we sat down. We were together as a little pod. That’s when we took our masks off.”

But the 36-year-old Trump, echoing his father, also said residents in states like North Carolina, where Democratic governors have been tougher about COVID-19 restrictions, wanted more freedom “to live their lives as they see fit.”

“People have gotten sick and tired of it,” he said “People want to start to open up. They want their kids back in school. They want to go back to work. People are really starting to revolt in states trying to keep people closed down. It’s not right.”

He added, though, that “People have to be responsible. Clearly, there are high-risk people who have to be careful. They have to live differently than, say, a 15-year old high school student.”

North Carolina entered Phase 3 of its reopening plan on Oct. 2, with looser restrictions for bars, outdoor stadiums, amusement parks and movie theaters, among other venues. Elementary schools in North Carolina are allowed to open to daily in-person instruction if local school boards choose that option.

Asked about news Thursday that members of an anti-government group in Michigan had been charged for allegedly plotting to kidnap that state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, whose handling of the coronavirus has drawn the ire of far-right groups, Eric Trump called their actions “insane.”

But in one of his more controversial tweets, President Trump in April appeared to encourage groups protesting Whitmer’s restrictions. His tweet read: “Liberate Michigan!”

This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 8:43 PM.