MIAMI — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says he would welcome the presidential debate moving to his city in October, but he has doubts about whether it can be held with an audience because of coronavirus.
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Tuesday that it would move the Oct. 15 debate to Miami after the University of Michigan canceled it, citing safety concerns.
But the Miami area has been a coronavirus hotspot for months in Florida, and Suarez — who had contracted coronavirus in March — isn’t so sure about having a large debate move to his city.
Coronavirus infections and hospitalizations in Miami-Dade County have been increasing ever since joining the state’s Phase 2 reopening on June 5, giving Suarez and other leaders pause. Phase 3 is a full re-opening.
“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 October 15,” Suarez said in a text message to 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,” Suarez said.
According to the debate commission, the event is now slated to be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami. The venue hosted the first Democratic debates of the 2020 primary last year. Democrat Joe Biden is a longtime family friend of the Arshts and in the past has stayed at their home. The New York Times first reported the commission would move its debate to Miami.
Biden’s campaign has expressed a willingness to comply with whatever standards the presidential debate commission sets. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has challenged Biden to more debates, but the Democrat wants the president to commit to the three standard commission debates first.
Trump has been setting low expectations for Biden after the Democrat’s 10 relatively weak debate performances. However, in the 11th and final debate on March 15, Biden fared much better. The difference: it was a one-on-one debate, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, and had no crowd due to the onset of the pandemic.
Biden advisers, who point out Trump did poorly in his debates against Hillary Clinton in 2016, also note that the former vice president has exceeded expectations in his previous one-on-one debates with Republicans, Sarah Palin in 2008 and Paul Ryan in 2012, when Biden was on Barack Obama’s ticket.
The receptiveness to holding a debate was decidedly cooler in Michigan, which has half the population of Florida but has seen far more coronavirus cases and deaths.
"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," University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel wrote in a letter shared with the commission.
In Miami, Suarez’s cautious optimism about having the debate come to Miami contrasts with the confidence of another Florida mayor, Jacksonville’s Lenny Curry, who persuaded the Republican National Committee to move the nominating convention to his city after the party and the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, couldn’t agree on holding a full convention.
Both Curry and Suarez are Republicans and both have seen reductions in coronavirus infection rates in their respective cities overall. But with the recent rise in infections in Miami-Dade, area mayors, including Suarez, announced Monday that everyone in public should wear protective masks.
Suarez, a moderate, has clashed at times with Gimenez but has worked closely with his neighboring Democratic mayor, Miami Beach’s Dan Gelber, who echoed the Miami mayor’s comments.
“I think it’s good for our community to be the lens through which critical issues of the day are discussed,” Gelber said. “But of course any debate would need to fully comply with the health standards required in that moment.”
Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, meanwhile, was more bullish on having the debate in his city, saying it could be done “carefully” with proper safety protocols and the advice of health experts and officials.
“We are ready and we welcome the opportunity to host a presidential debate here in Miami,” Diaz de la Portilla said. “We need to return to normalcy and presidential politics is no exception.”
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