Fox News anchor Chris Wallace expressed concerns about a new rule that would allow future presidential debate moderators to mute the microphones of candidates.
Giving moderators the ability to mute microphones of presidential candidates might not prevent them from interrupting one another and would put the moderator in a difficult position with the public, Wallace said.
“In this debate, they were only 6, 8 feet from each other. Even if you had cut off the president’s mic, I guess you would still have heard it over Biden’s. And in addition, the president still would have been disrupting and distracting Biden,” Wallace told Fox News host Bill Hemmer. “And secondly, we’re talking about the president of the United States and the Democratic nominee. You know, they say, ‘Well, we’re going to give the moderator a button to mute them.'”
He added: “Boy, I don’t want to be in the position of saying, you know, ‘I’m going to interpose myself between the president and the public and say, “You can’t hear what he has to say now.”‘ I think that’s a pretty tough spot to put any moderator in.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it was considering “additional structure” in future presidential debates to allow both sides to have adequate time to speak.
“Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues,” the statement read. “The CPD will be carefully considering the changes that it will adopt and will announce those measures shortly. The Commission is grateful to Chris Wallace for the professionalism and skill he brought to last night’s debate and intends to ensure that additional tools to maintain order are in place for the remaining debates.”
Both the Trump and Biden campaigns will reportedly be notified of the rule changes. However, those changes will not be up for negotiation. Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said the Biden campaign is attempting to “work the refs.”
“They’re only doing this because their guy got pummeled last night. President Trump was the dominant force, and now, Joe Biden is trying to work the refs,” Murtaugh said in a statement. “They shouldn’t be moving the goal posts and changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
