The executive producers of NBC's comedy "Connecting" have lashed out at the network's move to present a town hall with President Donald Trump on Thursday night that will coincide with a similar event involving Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, due to be hosted by ABC News.
Brendan Gall and Martin Gero tweeted on Wednesday that they "strenuously object to NBC giving Trump a town hall directly opposite Biden's on ABC".
They accused Trump of pulling out of the second presidential debate "to destabilise the election", adding that they "understand NBC is required to give him an hour of prime time but request that they reschedule it so that America can watch both".
Many netizens have, meanwhile, made fun of the NBC employees' concerns, with one user suggesting that "Biden's supporters will be […] stoned out of their mind on some illicit drug".
Another netizen tweeted that she is "looking forward to President Trump bringing up the Hunter Biden story" during the Thursday night town hall event.
On Wednesday, NBC News announced that President Trump would participate in the network's town hall on Thursday night, a 60-minute event that is due to be held at the Perez Art Museum in Miami.
The developments were followed by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates cancelling the second debate between Trump and Biden scheduled for 15 October, in a move that came after POTUS opposed the commission's decision to make the debate virtual due to health and safety reasons.
The cancellation was announced a few days after Trump was discharged from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where he was earlier hospitalised to undergo treatment for the coronavirus. Shortly after, White House physician Sean Conley revealed that POTUS had tested negative for COVID-19 on "consecutive days" and is no longer "infectious", declining to elaborate on when the tests were conducted.