Trump and Biden feud over issues for TV debate
US President Donald Trump and his White House challenger Joe Biden are feuding over plans because of their final TV debate.
The Republican president's campaign accused organizers of the week's showdown of helping the Democrat by leaving out a foreign policy as a subject.
The Biden camp shot back that Mr Trump was trying in order to avoid questions about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
With fourteen days to go until the election, Mr Biden has a commanding lead nationally in judgment polls.
But he includes a smaller lead in a couple of key US states that will ultimately decide the results.
What did the Trump campaign say?
On Monday, the president's camp sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates calling for topics to be adjusted for the ultimate primetime duel this Thursday.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in the letter that the campaigns had already agreed foreign policy would be the focus of the 3rd debate.
The subject areas were announced by a moderator and NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker the other day: American families, race in the US, climate change, national security, and leadership.
During a campaign rally on Monday afternoon in Prescott, Arizona, Mr Trump described Ms Welker as a "radical Democrat" and said she'd be "no good".
Mr Stepien accused Mr Biden to be "desperate in order to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record" and the commission of trying to "insulate Biden from his own history".
"The Commission's pro-Biden antics have turned the entire debate season right into a fiasco and it is little wonder why the general public has lost faith in its objectivity," he wrote.
He also accused Mr Biden of trying to avoid questions over reports about purported emails from his son, Hunter, and alleged conflicts of interest.
How did the Biden campaign respond?
The Democrat's camp hit back that it was actually Mr Trump who was trying to duck questions.
"The campaigns and the Commission agreed months ago that the debate moderator would pick the topics," said national press secretary TJ Ducklo.
"The Trump campaign is lying about this now because Donald Trump is afraid to handle more questions about his disastrous Covid response.
"As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is obtaining a nation in crisis the make it needs."
What exactly are the debate rules?
Following public criticism over the handling of the first debate, the commission has adopted a fresh rule to mute microphones in the final event.
The 90-minute debate structure will be split into 15-minute segments. In the beginning of every new topic, both applicants could have two minutes of uninterrupted time - where the opponent's microphone will be off.
The rest of the time will be open discussion - and the microphones will never be muted during this period.
In a statement announcing your choice, the debate commission said they determined it had been "appropriate to look at measures designed to promote adherence to agreed after rules".
The commission noted that "one [campaign] may think each goes too far, and one may think they do not go far enough", but these actions provided the right balance in the interests of the general public.
