Debate Commission Defends Decision To Mute Candidates’ Microphones for Portions of Final Debate

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) says it will give President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden two minutes each at the beginning of each segment during the final debate to speak uninterrupted.

The commission announced while one candidate speaks for two minutes at the beginning of a segment, the other candidate’s microphone will be mute to prevent interruptions.

Commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf defended the move during an interview on Brian Kilmeade’s radio show. He said, “It’s not a new rule.”

“The campaigns agreed early on, going back to June of this year when we announced what the formats were going to be for the… debates. And they both agreed to live with it. It provides, very clearly, that the first four minutes on each of the six segments — each candidate gets to speak for two minutes without interruption. So that’s the rule. And that’s been the rule,” he continued.

“But you’ve never killed audio,” Kilmeade interjected.

“No, no. We have never killed audio. And what happened during the last debate is they both violated that rule,” Fahrenkopf said. 

Listen to the interview below:

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“We’re not changing a rule. All we’re doing is saying you’ve already agreed to no interruptions for that two minutes on each of the six segments, and therefore when someone starts speaking, gets their two minutes, the other microphone is gonna be turned off until the two minutes are up, then the other person gets it. That’s it.”

He added that for the rest of the debate, the candidates would have “open microphones.”

He stressed that the decision to mute the microphones was not “to change the rules,” but to “make sure the American people can hear what went on.”

“You have to admit that last debate was terrible,” Fahrenkopf said.

He stressed that the decision was only to enforce the fact that both campaigns previously agreed to let the candidates get two minutes of uninterrupted time to give opening answers at the beginning of each segment.

The change comes after the first debate was widely panned as a “train-wreck” as Trump and Biden repeatedly spoke over each other.