After Trump family went maskless at debate, Miami’s Arsht Center demanded crackdown

A week before Miami’s Arsht Center was set to host the country’s second presidential debate during the coronavirus pandemic with two candidates in their 70s, circumstances turned even more unsettling.

President Donald Trump contracted COVID-19 himself, and, a week earlier, his family had refused to wear masks while sitting in the front row of the first debate in Cleveland.

While the Democratic nominee’s wife, Jill Biden, wore a mask on stage to greet her husband after the event, First Lady Melania Trump did not. She also later tested positive for COVID-19.

That was the background for a stern early-morning email on Oct. 7 to the top debate organizer from Arsht CEO Johann Zietsman.

“As we all witnessed during the first debate, many of those present in the room did not wear masks,” Zietsman wrote Janet Brown, director of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

“We need a 100% guarantee that masks will be worn by everybody, and only be removed by persons on camera during recording,” he wrote. “Any transgression of this will force us to take steps to protect our staff — which we have agreed is priority # 1, 2 and 3. I want to avoid this, and need to know how this will be enforced.”

Zietsman’s inbox does not show a response from Brown beyond: “On it, Johann. Thanks to you all.”

But within a day, mask concerns would be neutralized when Brown announced a drastic change to the Miami format for Oct. 15. Candidates wouldn’t debate inside the county-owned facility but would appear remotely by video.

The change doomed what would have been Miami’s first presidential debate since John Kerry faced George W. Bush at the University of Miami in 2004.

No debate, but Trump back in Miami anyway

Democratic nominee Joe Biden agreed to the virtual format, but Trump blasted it as a boon to his rival and said he’d skip the event. Biden quickly lined up a town hall on ABC in Philadelphia for Thursday night. Now Trump plans to have his own forum on NBC at the same time, just blocks away from the Arsht at Miami’s Perez Art Museum.

The Zietsman emails, obtained through a public-records request, do not reveal what role Arsht’s objections played in the commission’s format change announced the morning of Oct. 8.

The Oct. 7 email from Zietsman, sent at 7:45 a.m., appeared to memorialize a phone conversation Zietsman and staff had with Brown. The Arsht CEO began with the words: “Thank you for listening to our concerns, and for committing once again to full compliance with the details discussed.”

His email ticked off a string of concerns, including apparent references to the commission not delivering details on COVID-19 tests for crew scheduled to arrive at the Arsht for event set-up that Friday, just 48 hours away.

“We need the details on COVID testing today,” Zietsman wrote, placing the word “today” in boldface type. “With your team arriving on Friday, our agreement is that ALL members of BOTH teams be tested before entering the facility. With no information available at this time, we are very concerned about our crew, and we will not [be] compromised at this point.”

In a statement this week, Zietsman said: “The CPD was collaborative and shared and supported our concerns throughout the entire process. We have no reason to believe that the CPD would have gone forward without being able to meet the commitment made for this event, and so there was no need for a discussion about consequences.”

The Oct. 2 news that Trump had COVID came less than 72 hours after the Cleveland debate, and it thrust the commission’s coronavirus safeguards into more scrutiny. The White House refused to say when Trump had last tested negative for the disease before joining Biden on the stage.

While the commission hired the Cleveland Clinic to administer COVID protocols at the three debate sites, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and other members of the president’s family violated the rules by not wearing masks after taking their seats in the auditorium of Case Western Reserve University.

When a Cleveland Clinic staff member approached with masks, the person was rebuffed, according to an NBC News account.

Closed due to COVID-19

The Oct. 15 debate would have been the Arsht’s first event since closing under countywide COVID restrictions in March midway through a “Hamilton” run. Administrators of the non-profit that runs the tax-funded theater submitted a reopening plan that was approved by the administration of Mayor Carlos Gimenez and presented to county commissioners.

Zietsman cited the county approval in his email to Brown demanding assurances that mask rules would be enforced.

“We were granted permission to host this debate by the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners based on specific commitments, including that everybody in the facility would be wearing masks,” he wrote. “If anybody chooses to disregard that agreement, it not only puts us in breach of our agreement with the County, but it exposes our staff to health risks which we will not accept.”

The next morning, Brown sent Zietsman a new email with a press release the Debates Commission was sending out 10 minutes later. The headline: “CPD ANNOUNCES SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE WILL BE VIRTUAL.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 2:45 PM.