Debate Commission Co-Chair Defends Muting Mics: We’re Not Making a New Rule, We’re Enforcing What Campaigns Already Agreed to
The Trump campaign publicly criticized the Commission on Presidential Debates over its announcement that at the final debate, President Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s mics would be muted during each other’s opening two-minute answers on topics.
Debate commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf spoke with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio Tuesday to defend the decision.
“It’s not a new rule,” he said. “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.”
“But you’ve never killed audio,” Kilmeade said.
Fahrenkopf said both candidates “violated that rule” at the last debate, and added, “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 ii. That’s it.”
He emphasized the rest of the debate is “open microphones” and that they just want to “enforce what they’re already agreed to.”
Fahrenkopf defended moderator Kristen Welker amid the attacks coming from Team Trump — pointing to what Jason Miller recently said in praise of Welker just days ago — and dismissed the idea that the third debate was set as a foreign policy debate, after the Trump campaign complained and said, “As is the long-standing custom, and as had been promised by the Commission on Presidential Debates, we had expected that foreign policy would be the central focus of the October 22 debate.”
“Everyone says the last debate is usually foreign policy,” Kilmeade said. “You say?”
“Not true,” Fahrenkopf responded. “The campaign knew that. I had a discussion — I’m not going to name who, but someone very high, the highest level of the Trump campaign, asking ‘Is it foreign policy?’ I said, ‘No no no.'”
He said that used to be the case, “but we found out that didn’t work” and “we gave up on that way back at the beginning.”
You can listen above, via Fox News Radio.
