Posted on 10/20/2020 4:51:41 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
At mid-afternoon on Monday, Trump Campaign Manager Bill Stepien sent a letter over to the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) complaining about the fact that what was supposed to be a debate over foreign policy suddenly shifted focus after the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop began to come out into the public domain:
As you can see, the letter accurately renames the CPD the “Biden Debate Commission,” and also warns the CPD that the Trump Campaign is greatly concerned about rumors that it was about to add a mute button to the proceedings that would effectively work in Biden’s favor.
Less than an hour after Stepien sent this letter, the CPD announced it was indeed going to allow someone behind the scenes to mute the microphone of either candidate when they are off the “clock.”
From a report at Fox News:
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) will mute President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden during the two-minute response times allotted to their opponents for commenting on topics during Thursday’s debate in Nashville.
The commission said in a statement that it “had determined that it is appropriate to adopt measures intended to promote adherence to agreed-upon rules and inappropriate to make changes to those rules.”
Also included in the debate will be an open discussion forum that won’t include the mute option. Thursday’s debate will consist of six 15-minute segments, totaling 90 minutes in all as in the first debate.
[End]
Hell, why not just put a shock collar on the President?
Again, this is yet another reason why, as I urged yesterday, President Trump should not participate in this final debate. If he participates, then he legitimizes this process yet again, and every rule the CPD wants to implement on Thursday, including the mute button.
A debate with a mute button is not a debate at all – it is a forum. A debate is by definition supposed to be a free exchange of ideas between the candidates, with both participants able to directly question and rebut their opponent.
And let’s be honest about this mute button: It’s only being implemented because everyone knows about Biden’s advancing dementia and his utter inability to keep up with Donald Trump in a free exchange.
Think of it in boxing terms: Joe Biden is an aged ex-champion Floyd Patterson in 1965, and Donald Trump is Muhammed Ali. Everyone knew leading up to that fight that Patterson had lost his edge and had no chance to truly be competitive with Ali. The result was 12 long rounds of Ali toying with Patterson, peppering him with jab after jab and the occasional uppercut as the aging ex-champ flailed away and tried to cover up, before Ali finally, mercifully knocked him out with a devastating flurry in the 12th round.
On This Day: Muhammad Ali defeats Floyd Patterson again - Boxing News
The only way Patterson could have possibly been competitive in that fight would have been for the World Boxing Congress to have one of Patterson’s trainers as the referee and to tie one of Ali’s hands behind his back. Ali would have still won, but Patterson might have been able to land some blows in the process of losing.
By the same token, the Trump-hating swamp snakes at the CPD know that Biden has zero ability to compete with Trump, and are doing everything they can to tilt the ring in Biden’s favor. The moderator is a corrupt Democrat activist, the subject matter reads like the Democrat Party manifesto, and now they want to give the TV producers the ability to completely cut the President off whenever things turn sour for their guy.
That is what is happening here, and it is an utter and complete travesty that should not be given any legitimacy by the President’s participation in it. The Trump campaign should announce today that it will not participate in any debate process in which the rules are fundamentally changed at the last minute to benefit the Democrats. It should notify the Commission that the President will not participate unless the obviously-biased moderator is replaced, the mute button is removed and the subject matter of the debate is returned to its original intent. This is not the debate the Campaign and RNC agreed to, and it should not be held.
More than that, Ronna Romney McDaniel and the RNC should also send a formal letter to the CPD notifying them that, unless the President’s demands are met, the Republican Party will no longer allow its presidential candidates to participate in any future debates organized by this entity, due to this year’s utter and complete tilting of the playing field.
Enough of this fraud. President Trump has all the momentum going in his direction in this campaign right now. Thursday’s debate would do nothing to help that, but could do it harm with a bad Presidential performance. There is no advantage for the Trump campaign to legitimize the process anymore.
Boycott it, schedule a campaign rally in a key swing state during the same time slot and be done with it.
ENOUGH.
That is all.
I really wish Trump would expend his energy on the rallies and not the debate. The debate won’t help change anyone’s mind, given how biased and filtered it will be. The constant rallies might.
For a “real” debate, I’m all for a mute button. but it needs to apply to all three of them, including the moderator.
This may get interesting. :)
Speaking of future presidential debates if Biden steals the election is pointless. Big Tech and the democrat party will choose future “republican” presidential candidates, assuming they even allow the farce of a future republican candidate.
I’m guessing that when Joe gets two minutes, he will get two minutes.
I’m also guessing that when Trump gets two minutes, Joe will be muted, but the moderator may still jump in and interrupt, correct, and argue with the president, thereby disrupting his two minutes.
The good news about the mute button is that the time can be precisely controlled. But if the moderator interrupts the president, the president should go on full attack of the moderator. You know, things like, “fact check me on your own time.” Or, “Which one of you am I supposed to be debating?!” Etc.
IF there is a mute button, it means each candidate should have their two minutes to say whatever they want, even if it’s total bullchit, and let people “fact check” it AFTER the debate, not during it. “Fact checking” during the debate is, quite literally, becoming one of the debaters. It’s the job of the two candidates, not the moderator.
“Fact checking” is also usually a sham.
The fun part is that trump can do what so many D’s do. Just ignore the question and tie it back to whatever he wants - like the Biden emails. :)
The plan for Trump was to let Biden ramble on, this is to help Biden from rambling.
I just thought of a great line. If the moderator keeps interrupting Trump, trump should say, “If joe and I have mute buttons, you need a muzzle.”
The image of a muted Donald Trump is going the be the headline. I’m not watching this setup.
Much like Twitter attempting to silence news on the Biden emails only resulted in giving the story more visibility, attempting to control the debate to Biden’s advantage will undoubtably backfire spectacularly.
Let’s not underestimate Trump———he’s planning debate moves on the demented Democrat even a quick-fingered moderator can’t mute.
I expect that the "moderator" will be continuously interrupting PDJT during his 1 minute, 40 second segments.
AMEN.
the biggest scam is that they changed the topics from foreign policy to other topics. Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments scare them to death.
That is what is happening here, and it is an utter and complete travesty that should not be given any legitimacy by the President’s participation in it. The Trump campaign should announce today that it will not participate in any debate process in which the rules are fundamentally changed at the last minute to benefit the Democrats. It should notify the Commission that the President will not participate unless the obviously-biased moderator is replaced, the mute button is removed and the subject matter of the debate is returned to its original intent. This is not the debate the Campaign and RNC agreed to, and it should not be held.
More than that, Ronna Romney McDaniel and the RNC should also send a formal letter to the CPD notifying them that, unless the President’s demands are met, the Republican Party will no longer allow its presidential candidates to participate in any future debates organized by this entity, due to this year’s utter and complete tilting of the playing field.
Enough of this fraud. President Trump has all the momentum going in his direction in this campaign right now. Thursday’s debate would do nothing to help that, but could do it harm with a bad Presidential performance. There is no advantage for the Trump campaign to legitimize the process anymore.
Boycott it, schedule a campaign rally in a key swing state during the same time slot and be done with it.
ENOUGH. "
^^^^^ Yeah. This right here.
According to this article, the mute button is only active during the two minutes of "speechifying." After that there is a period of time when both candidates may speak.
To me, this is just enforcing common courtesy. You should have enough self control to not speak over the other person while they are making their point.
The mute button will only be applied to PDJT.
Seriously, that looks like a Babylon Bee headline in the making.
Rules apply to both sides equally. That’s how events like this work.
Being President is a high stress 24x7 job. Does anyone *really* think he is capable of executing the duties of the office?
Among good people you’d be right. The left has proven time and again they are not good people. There is always an ulterior motive and this one is clear. Shut Trump down and elevate Biden.
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