Coronavirus: Donald Trump, Joe Biden microphones to be muted in second presidential debate

Three weeks after a chaotic opening debate, Trump and Biden will have their microphones cut while their rival speaks on Friday.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden will have their microphones cut off in Friday’s debate while their rival delivers their opening two-minute answer to each of the debate topics.

Three weeks after a chaotic opening faceoff between the two presidential contenders that featured frequent interruptions, the Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the rule changes for Friday’s round two, AP is reporting.

The 90-minute debate will be divided into six 15-minute segments, with each candidate granted two minutes to deliver uninterrupted remarks before proceeding to an open debate. The open discussion portion of the debate will not feature a mute button, but interruptions by either candidate will count toward their time in the second and final debate.

The announcement came as Mr Trump declared people are “tired of Covid” and that his top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci is a “disaster,” as he tries to encourage Americans to move beyond the pandemic.

The president has also told his campaign staff he now believes he will win the November 3 election, admitting that he wasn’t so sure two weeks ago when he was stricken with COVID-19.

Mr Trump’s comments came as he held two campaign rallies in Arizona on Tuesday (AEDT), with his campaign planning up to five rallies a day in the closing days of the election campaign.

In an upbeat call with his campaign staff, Mr Trump downplayed the pandemic which has killed 220,000 Americans, saying people are sick of public health restrictions and just want to get on with their lives.

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, flanked by US President Donald Trump.

“People are tired of Covid. I have the biggest rallies I’ve ever had. And we have Covid. People are saying, ‘Whatever — just leave us alone,’ ” Mr Trump said.

The president described Dr Fauci as a “nice guy”’ but said if he had listened to the medical expert the US would have had 500,000 deaths.

“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, these people, these people that have gotten it wrong,” the president told his staff. “Fauci’s a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years. He called every one of them wrong. And he’s like this wonderful guy, a wonderful sage, telling us how he said, ‘Do not wear face masks’ — that’s a number of months ago.”

Mr Trump is now using his campaign rallies to mock his opponent Joe Biden for listening to scientists on the coronavirus and wanting to shutdown the economy.

With polls showing most voters disapprove of his handling of the pandemic, Mr Trump is playing down the health risks and calling on people to resume their lives and reopen the economy. This contrasts with Dr Fauci’s more cautious approach to combating the virus.

Mr Biden hit back on Tuesday, saying voters were tired about Mr Trump’s lies about the virus.

“Coronavirus infections are spiking across the country, but President Trump decided to attack Dr Fauci again today as a ‘disaster’ and call public health experts ‘idiots’ instead of laying out a plan to beat this virus or heeding their advice about how we can save lives and get our economy moving again,” Mr Biden said.

“Waving a white flag and saying ‘it is what it is’ is unacceptable when thousands of American lives are being taken each week, when businesses are closing and schools remain shuttered.”

Veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove criticised the president’s decision to attack Dr Fauci, as “not helpful”, saying it would distract attention from important issues like the economy, where Mr Trump held an advantage over Mr Biden.

Despite trailing Mr Biden by 8.9 points in national polls, Mr Trump predicted he would win the election by a larger margin than in 2016.

“I think we’ll do better than 2016, we are way ahead than in 2016,” he said, referring to his come-from-behind victory over Hillary Clinton.

Speaking to his campaign staff, Mr Trump said; “This is the day of both campaigns I feel the best about winning. We are going to win. I wouldn’t have said that three weeks ago, two weeks ago.”

He predicted he would win the swing states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Georgia, among others.

As the campaign enters its final two weeks, the number of ballots cast before the election continues to surge with more than 28 million votes already cast compared with 5.9 million at a similar time in 2016.

The large number, which includes both in-person voting and mail-in votes, comes as many people try to avoid an election-day crush during the pandemic. For others it reflects a strong desire to ensure that their vote is counted. A new Gallup survey has found that 77 per cent of registered US voters say the outcome of this election matters more to them than any previous election. The result is the highest recorded since Gallup began asking the question in 1996.

The poll found that 85 per cent of Democrats thought this election was the most important ever compared with 79 per cent of Republicans.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia