Washington: US President Donald Trump has confirmed his participation in the presidential debate with his Democratic challenger Joe Biden later this week, even as he raised objections about “unfair” changes in the format.
Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, are slated to face their final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on October 22.The non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) on Monday announced new rules under which it will mute microphones for two minutes of the rival speakers so as to give them uninterrupted opening remarks.
“I’ll participate, I just think it is very unfair, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.
“I will participate, but it’s very unfair that they changed the topics and it is very unfair that again we have an anchor who is totally biased,” the president said, responding to a question on changes in the debate rules by CPD.
In a letter to CPD on Monday, Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien expressed concern over the announced topics for what was always billed as the ‘Foreign Policy Debate’ in the series of events agreed to by both the Trump and the Biden campaigns many months ago.
“The topics announced by moderator Kristen Welker (fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership) are serious and worthy of discussion, but only a few of them even touch on foreign policy, he said, asserting that almost all of the topics were discussed at length during the first debate “won” by Trump.
Under the new rules, Trump and Biden will each have two minutes of uninterrupted time to speak at the beginning of every 15-minute segment.
Lawsuit challenges Trump’ new visa rules
Several individuals and organisations, including the US Chambers of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s recent rules related to the H-1B visa, terming them “arbitrary” and “haphazard” regulations that will undermine high skilled immigration into America.
Early this month, the Trump administration announced new restrictions on H-1B non-immigrant visa programme which it said is aimed at protecting American workers, restoring integrity and to better guarantee that H-1B petitions are approved only for qualified beneficiaries and petitioners, a move which is likely to affect thousands of Indian IT professionals. (PTI)
