People Are Livid That NBC Is Giving Trump A Town Hall That Will Run At The Same Time As Joe Biden’s On Thursday

After President Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, leading to his strange hospitalization and even stranger behavior in the days following his release, Joe Biden’s campaign made a reasonable request for the second presidential debate: Do it virtually. Given Trump was still within the 14-day window of testing positive for the virus and most likely contagious, the Presidential Debate Commission ruled that a virtual debate was in the best interests of everyone’s health and safety. However, the Trump campaign balked at this arrangement and refused to agree to the new terms, which ultimately disqualified the president from the debate. This move gave Biden the entire town hall formate to himself, which is set to air on Thursday night on ABC.

But in a controversial move, NBC has announced that it will now host its own town hall with Trump on Thursday at the same time as Biden’s. NBC defended its decision by asserting that Trump is not infectious and proper safety precautions will be taken. Via CNN:

National Institutes of Health Clinical Director Clifford Lane said in a statement to NBC News that they have concluded, via PCR test analysis, “with a high degree of confidence” that Trump is “not shedding infectious virus.”

The event will be moderated by Savannah Guthrie, who will sit 12 feet from the President. Attendees will be required to wear face masks.

In a bit of unfortunate timing, NBC’s surprise decision arrived on the heels of a damning report on Trump’s time at the network as its top reality star. The Hollywood Reporter spoke to insiders who claim that NBC was well aware of Trump’s racist tendencies and questionable business dealings, and it could have stopped his presidential run. Instead, the network sat on its hands. “They should have clamped down on him then but they continued to turn the other way,” a source said. “It’s always all about the bottom line.”

With the one-two punch of the Celebrity Apprentice revelations and NBC essentially giving the president 90 minutes of free air-time, #BoycottNBC began trending on Twitter as people voiced their anger with the controversial town hall announcement:

https://twitter.com/robsforman/status/1316412681323126784
https://twitter.com/andizeisler/status/1316413493667454976

(Via CNN, The Hollywood Reporter)