Commission on Presidential Debates to make format changes following first Trump-Biden debate
Testing on staging11
WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The Commission on Presidential Debates says it’s adding new “tools to maintain order” to the upcoming debates following the first meeting between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The nonpartisan commission has organized every general election presidential debate since 1988. The commission posted the following statement on its website:
“The Commission on Presidential Debates sponsors televised debates for the benefit of the American electorate. 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 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.”
The Commission on Presidential debates
The commission did not specify what changes it would make, but the Associated Press reports one possibility being discussed is to give the moderator the ability to cut off the microphone of one of the debate participants while his opponent is talking — that’s according to a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
The next presidential debate is a town hall format scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami.