Chris Wallace Reveals Debate Producer’s Panicked Plea to Stop Trump Interrupting: Should I Have ‘Hit a Trap Door’ On the President?

Fox News’ Chris Wallace offered new reflections on the presidential debates while recalling the chaos as he presided over President Donald Trump’s first face-off with President-elect Joe Biden.

Wallace joined NBC’s Kristen Welker and USA Today’s Susan Page for a webinar from the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. The conversation between the three moderators gravitated around their pre and post-debate mindsets, the most substantial moments from each of their debates, and all the formatting changes that were adopted through the end of the 2020 race.

Wallace has repeatedly voiced regret for how his debate ended up plunging into disarray, and he recalled that he felt calm going into the debate since he previously moderated Trump when he faced Hillary Clinton back in 2016. The 2020 debate is still a source of discomfort for Wallace though, for he said he rewatched the 2016 debate to prepare, but “I’m not sure I ever will” watch the 2020 debate ever again.

Wallace recalled that when the Trump-Biden flareup began, “My initial reaction was ‘This is great! They’re going to engage with each other!’” It wasn’t long after though when Wallace saw the debate go off the rails and he started to feel “This is getting out of control.”

Looking back, at 90 minutes in, you can sit there and say ‘my gosh, this was a mess.’ But you didn’t know that at each step along the way, and you were kind of hoping it would find its way back onto the tracks. And eventually it didn’t.

Later, as Wallace and his colleagues took questions from the web audience, he was asked if moderating the Trump-Biden debate was comparable to “parenting.”

“As the father of six children and the grandfather of seven, no,” he said. “My children and grandchildren are much better behaved.”

As he further recalled his hopes that the debate would eventually course correct itself, Wallace remembered the producer telling him over the earpiece to “stop Trump from interrupting Biden!”

“What does he expect me to do?” Wallace said. “Does he expect me to hit a trap door and have the President of the United States go down? There’s not much you can do in that situation.”

Watch above (start at 15:00 and 1:17:00), via George Washington University.

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