US Presidential Elections: Debate commission adopts new rules to mute mics

President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden will have their microphones cut off in Thursday’s debate while their rival delivers their opening two-minute answer to each of the debate topics.

Washington: The Trump campaign wrote a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates in which it demanded that the final round of presidential debates to be focused on foreign policy and dismissed as unacceptable proposals to allow the moderator to shut off the candidates' microphones.

"For the good of campaign integrity and for the benefit of the American people, we urge you to rethink and reissue a set of topics for the October 22 debate, with an emphasis on foreign policy. This is what the campaigns had agreed to and it has been the tradition in past campaigns," Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien wrote in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The 90-minute debate is divided into six 15-minute segments, with each candidate granted two minutes to deliver uninterrupted remarks before proceeding to an open debate. The open discussion portion of the debate will not feature a mute button, but interruptions by either candidate will count toward their time in the second and final debate Thursday.

The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced the rule changes Monday, three weeks after a chaotic opening faceoff between the two presidential contenders that featured frequent interruptions — most by Trump.

The commission has faced pressure from the Trump campaign to avoid changing the rules, while Biden’s team was hoping for a more ordered debate.

Stepien said that only a few of the topics announced by moderator Kristen Welker - Fighting COVID-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security, and Leadership - barely touch on foreign policy and almost all were discussed at length during the first debate.

Stepien sent the letter ahead of the Commission's meeting on the issue of allowing the moderator to shut off the candidates' microphones during the debate.

"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to wield such power and a decision to proceed with that change amounts to turning further editorial control of the debate over to the Commission which has already demonstrated its partiality to [Democratic nominee Joe] Biden," Stepien said.

The second round of presidential debates was cancelled last week after Trump contracted the novel coronavirus and quickly recovered, but refused to debate Biden virtually. The third - and last - the debate is scheduled to take place in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday.

(ANI)