Debate Commission changes rules allowing candidates mics to be muted during response per CNN.
For the final Presidential debate on Thursday night, the candidate’s mics will be muted during the two-minute segments of the debate. The Commission on Presidential Debates made the rule change after the backlash from all of the interruptions from the first debate. Even though both of the microphones will be muted this is clearly a response to President Trump interjecting himself into Biden’s time.
“The change is sure to anger Trump, and his campaign”, according to CNN. In my opinion the reason it angers Trump and most of his supporters is the fact that Biden is very rarely asked difficult questions. If Trump doesn’t interject and put Biden on the spot he would never get asked about Ukraine, Hunter Biden, etc. Rather the media asks questions about climate change, and white supremacy.
This wouldn’t be the first time that the media has refused to ask Democrats difficult questions in an election year. The debates are typically a time for opposing candidates to confront their rival on pressing issues. President Trump is usually confronted with difficult questions by the moderators themselves i.e. Did you pay $750 in taxes in 2016?
Presidential Debate Commission’s selection of moderators doesn’t make conservatives feel any better about the process. According to Slate.com Chris Wallace interrupted President Trump at least 25 times. Even though Biden interrupted President Trump “dozens of times” per Slate.
Thursday nights moderator is Kristen Welker from NBC News. The media has already began running cover for her, and denouncing criticism from the Trump campaign. But even Vanity Fair wasn’t able to dispute Newt Gingrich’s tweets that Welker’s “family gave thousands of dollars to Obama, Clinton and Biden.” Also that she is a registered Democrat.
In the exact same Vanity Fair article Jake Tapper from CNN is quoted as saying, “If any other outlet started covering the political donations of *the parents* of folks who work at Fox there would be widespread outrage and rightly so.” This from the very same network that constantly denounces Fox News as a wing of the Trump campaign for just having a few conservative leaning late night personalities. In the meantime they will avoid any stories or devote any time to the Hunter Biden story.
The Presidential Debate Commission also decides on the topics of the debate. Typically these topics are left leaning. According to CNN the topics for the final debate are as follows: “Fighting COVID-19,” “American Families,” “Race in America,” “Climate Change,” “National Security” and “Leadership.” This will be the 3rd debate, counting the VP debate, in which climate change has been a topic. To conservatives climate change is low on the list when it comes to pressing issues, and is another example of how left leaning the commission and moderator are.
The deck already seems stacked to President Trump, and many of his supporters. I’m going to sit back and wait for the day that the Debate Commission selects a moderator from Breitbart. In no uncertain terms giving the moderator any kind of power to mute a candidate now or in the future is not a good idea. As conservatives continue trying to challenge their Democratic challengers on the issues, they will need to interject themselves in debates to bring up hot button issues. The media, and their reluctance to ask Biden difficult questions, are going to lead to more aggressive tactics as President Trump attempts to get answers.
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