John McCain has announced the suspension of his campaign, saying he will return to Washington to help work on solving the financial crisis which is gripping Wall Street.

The Huffington Post reports that McCain has told opponent Barack Obama that he won’t attend Friday’s presidential debate, and has called for “an emergency meeting between the President, congressional leaders and both nominees to produce legislation addressing the threat of a Wall Street collapse and a dangerous recession.”

“Later in the day, Obama rejected McCain’s proposal to postpone the first debate. “This is exactly the time the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess,” Obama said. “What I’ve told the leadership in Congress is that if I can be helpful, then I am prepared to be anywhere, anytime. What I think is important is that we don’t suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics.”

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