The Commission on Presidential debates adopted new rules to mute the microphones of both candidates to prevent frequent interruptions during Thursday’s presidential debate.
“Under the agreed upon debate rules, each candidate is to have two minutes of uninterrupted time to make remarks at the beginning of each 15 minute segment of the debate. These remarks are to be followed by a period of open discussion. Both campaigns this week again reaffirmed their agreement to the two-minute, uninterrupted rule. The Commission is announcing today that in order to enforce this agreed upon rule, the only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules. For the balance of each segment, which by design is intended to be dedicated to open discussion, both candidates’ microphones will be open.”
Statement from the Commission on Presidential debates.
The decision comes after the commission met on Monday afternoon to discuss changes to the debate format, CNN reports.
These new changes comes after the disastrous first debate in which Donald Trump interrupted Joe Biden 71 times during the 90 minute debate. Biden interrupted Trump 22 times.
