There will probably be a "renegotiation" of plans to hold next week's presidential debate virtually, White House Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Thursday.
"I think the president is getting well," Kudlow said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "He will pass the test and will be showing negative testing, so I'm not sure (the virtual debate) is going to happen."
President Donald Trump vowed during a call-in interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo not to participate in next week's debate with Democrat nominee Joe Biden after the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the event would take place virtually because of the president's COVID-19 diagnosis.
Biden's campaign, however, said that even if Trump doesn't show up for the Oct. 15 debate, the former vice president plans to speak with voters in a town hall setting anyway. He also called for a full debate on Oct. 22, so Trump can't "evade accountability."
Kudlow also praised Vice President Mike Pence's Wednesday night debate against Democrat vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
"In a calm manner, he took command of the debate and crucially time and again pointed out the key differences between Biden-Harris and Trump-Pence on taxes, on regulations, on energy, on socializing and nationalizing healthcare," said Kudlow. "He was tough on China and good trade deals, and of course, on right to life and stacking the Supreme Court ... Mike Pence looked like a president to me."
Kudlow also discussed the new weekly jobless numbers that show 840,000 applied for unemployment benefits last week.
"I don't deny that a lot of Americans are still hurting," said Kudlow. "I think there is still a lot of hardship out there. I do want to note these weekly unemployment claims have fallen sharply from the peaks registered in mid to late April, early May."
The actual payments also fell by over 1 million, which is a "pretty good forecaster of the next months' jobs," said Kudlow.
"The reality is the economy is in the right direction and still looks to me very much like a V-shaped recovery," he added.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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