CNN Anchors Demonstrate How Cut Mics Will Work at Trump-Biden Debate

 

CNN demonstrated on Wednesday how its microphones would work during Thursday evening’s debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, with each candidate being automatically muted when it’s no longer their turn.

“We want to give our viewers a sense of the rules of the debate so that when they watch it, they can understand how President Biden and President Trump will be engaging with each other,” declared CNN anchor Phil Mattingly:

Tomorrow night, just after 9 p.m. Eastern, President Biden will enter from the right side of your screen. President Trump will enter from the left side of your screen. The podiums are eight feet apart, directly across from them, the moderators, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Now, a reminder, this is a television studio, there’s no audience. Candidates will have two minutes to answer questions and one minute for responses and rebuttals. At the moderators’ discretion, there may be an additional minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.

So how does a candidate know how much time is left to speak? Attached to the cameras in the studio and in the candidates field of view are the timing lights. When the lights show yellow, there are 15 seconds left in the candidate’s answer or response. When the lights flash red, there are five seconds left, and when the display is solid red, the time is up. At that point, the candidate’s microphone will be turned off and the other candidate will have their microphone turned on.

CNN anchor Victor Blackwell then gave a behind-the-scenes look at the candidates’ debate podiums.

“If we go behind the podiums, you can see two green lights. When they’re on, they signal to the candidate his microphone is on,” explained Blackwell. “When the green lights are off, they signal to the candidate his microphone is off. Now I want to give you a sense of what it will look like for viewers at home if a candidate whose microphone is off interrupted a candidate whose microphone is on.”

Mattingly and Blackwell then took it in turns to speak over each other while their microphones were muted, demonstrating that they could barely be heard.

“CNN’s production team has shared this demonstration with the campaigns earlier today, and we’re sharing it with you, our viewers, so everyone fully understands how tomorrow night will work,” concluded Mattingly. “Now, we should note, by agreeing to participate in this debate, both campaigns and candidates have also agreed to abide by these rules.”

Fox News host Sean Hannity and NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd have both suggested that the microphone rules, created to avoid interruptions, could inadvertently help Trump during the debate.

“Joe might have done Donald Trump a favor, and I say this affectionately, by insisting that when it’s not his turn to speak that they mute his microphone, ’cause I think that was a mistake in the first debate in 2020,” said Hannity, while Todd observed, “They so want to have a different experience than the last debate they had with him… and ironically it’s the single best debate Biden had.”

Watch above via CNN.

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