The second presidential debate between President Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will take place in Miami after the University of Michigan backed out of its commitment to host the debate.
The university, which was slated to host the second of three debates on Oct. 15 in Ann Arbor, was reportedly concerned about the debates attracting media, campaign workers, and other presidential candidate supporters or protesters to the campus in a way that could spread COVID-19.
The school announced on Monday that it plans to have students return to campus for courses in the fall with University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel saying, “We will protect our students, faculty and staff with a broad array of research-based public health measures and tools.” The university followed up on Tuesday by confirming it would withdraw as a debate host.
“Given the scale and complexity of the work we are undertaking to help assure a safe and healthy fall for our students, faculty and staff and limited visitors — and in consideration of the public health guidelines in our state as well as advice from our own experts — we feel it is not feasible for us to safely host the presidential debate as planned,” Schlissel wrote in a letter.
The Commission on Presidential Debates then announced that the event will be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami instead. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez welcomed the move to the city but said that the debate may be held without an audience because of the coronavirus.
“Right now, we are not in Phase 3, so I can’t see it today being hosted with people in the audience. Impossible to predict where we will be on Oct. 15,” Suarez told Politico. “It’s possible that we may already be in Phase 3 by then, and it’s also possible that the debate can be held without people in the audience.”
“The fact that the presidential commission chose Miami for such a critical debate at the end of the campaign highlights the importance of our city and state to determining the outcome of the presidency,” he added.
Michigan, especially in the Detroit area, was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year. The state currently has the ninth-largest outbreak in the nation, with nearly 68,000 confirmed cases and 6,097 related deaths. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, implemented some of the strictest social distancing measures in the country while working to curb the spread of the virus. The state has yet to reopen fully.
