By Todd Lassa

It was less than a week--believe it or don’t--before Wednesday night’s debate in Salt Lake City between vice presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Mike Pence when the following happened:

President Trump revealed he had tested positive for the coronavirus, was flown to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment, took an unannounced ride on Sunday to wave to a crowd of his followers outside the Bethesda, Md. hospital, and flew back to the White House Monday to dramatically remove his mask and tell America, “don’t be afraid of it – you’re gonna beat it.”

For that extended weekend, at least, the Biden campaign announced it would pull all negative advertising against the incumbent president while Trump was suffering from Covid-19. The Lincoln Project, a group of “never-Trumper” conservative Republicans who have been campaigning against the president’s re-election, issued a statement that said the group will not pull its advertising, including a widely played television commercial called “Mourning in America” and more recently released the commercial, "Covita," a parody of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from the Broadway hit musical, "Evita."

As of this writing, the Biden campaign has not announced when, or if, it will re-instate any commercials or ads attacking or criticizing President Trump. 

After a shoutfest of a first presidential debate Sept. 30, heavily criticized by both Democrats and Republicans, Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden are scheduled to reunite for a town hall-style debate that will take questions from voters in the audience, next week in Ann Arbor, Mich. The town hall debate remains on the Commission for Presidential Debates’ schedule. It is to be held just 10 days after Trump’s release from Walter Reed. 

While some Biden supporters will argue that pulling negative ads is something no one would ever expect from the Trump re-election campaign, some Trump supporters will argue that the Biden campaign’s pledge was a political stunt, that “liberal media” will make up for the Democratic presidential candidate’s graciousness anyway. What do our liberal and conservative pundits think? The answers are on this page, in the column to the left and the column to the right.

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