Trump and Biden hold separate town halls in lieu of cancelled 2nd presidential debate

Greenville (US): US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden held simultaneous and separate televised town halls in lieu of the second presidential debate, taking questions from pre-selected individuals at sessions moderated by eminent television journalists.

While Trump's town hall was hosted by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in Miami, Florida, that of Biden was held in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) News.

The second presidential debate had originally been scheduled for Thursday night. However, it was cancelled after Trump refused to participate in a virtual format of the presidential debate as amended by the independent debate commission following the president's COVID-19 diagnosis.

A final debate is still scheduled for October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. The first debate was held on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio. Trump, 74, has recovered from a brief spell of COVID-19 after he and First Lady Melania Trump, 50, tested positive for the deadly viral infection on October 1. Trump's doctors have now cleared him for his election campaigns.

During the town hall, Trump defended his handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. He also reiterated his stand on tax returns. However, Trump refused to denounce the QAnon conspiracy theory.

According to QAnon, a far-right group that has been labelled a terror threat by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Democrats are running a secret paedophilia ring.

When asked by moderator Savannah Guthrie if he would denounce the QAnon theory and just say it's crazy and not true , Trump said, I don't know about QAnon.

When pressed further on whether or not he believed that Democrats were running a pedophile ring, Trump said, "I have no idea." Biden's during his town hall said he would soon express his position on court packing, an issue that he has avoided so far.