It’s only Saturday but we’re already getting a preview of what Thursday’s debate will be. Projection 101 or Joseph Goebbels’ playbook, “Accuse the other side of that which you are doing yourself.” Donald Trump knows that he’s at a tremendous disadvantage for the debate and so two conspiracy theories have been going around Twitter for the past week now: 1. Joe Biden will be amped up on drugs and 2. The debate questions have already been provided to Biden. Ergo, Poor Donald can’t be expected to overcome a chemically enhanced superman who’s been given all the answers ahead of time, right? No fair, no fair.
Trump isn't planning to participate in the Debate. He is setting it up now.
— Anti-SS Teenage Neighbor (@Anti_SS_69) June 22, 2024
Many changes have been made since the 2020 debates and those debates reflected changes made from 2016, when Trump was truly out of control, physically looming over Hillary Clinton at one point. Many things will be different this year.
The verbal volleys in 2020 between Biden and Trump, under the Fox News moderator Chris Wallace, became so vitriolic that the CNN presenter Dana Bash was prompted, live on air, to describe the event as “a shitshow”. Earlier this year, both campaigns chose to circumvent the Commission on Presidential Debates, which had overseen presidential debates since 1988, and on 27 June, Bash and her CNN co-presenter, Jake Tapper, will have a chance to improve on Fox’s effort when they preside over the first debate in Atlanta. A second debate will take place on 10 September, to be hosted by ABC.
No props or prewritten notes will be allowed on stage. Candidates will be given a pen, a notepad and a bottle of water.
The decisions to switch off a candidate’s microphone when it is the opponent’s turn to speak, and to exclude a partisan audience, have been taken in an effort to reduce the theatrical gladiatorial bloodsport element that has threatened to overwhelm recent debates.
Some critics said the lack of oversight from the CPD, [Commission On Presidential Debates] as well as the inclusion of two commercial breaks during the 90-minute event, undermined the nature of the debate.
“The introduction of commercial breaks will fundamentally change what makes a debate a debate, since the candidates will constantly be able to stop and regroup,” Clea Conner, chief executive of Open to Debate, a research group that has tracked presidential debates over recent decades, told Politico.
“Even though there will be only two commercial breaks this time, once we deem them acceptable it’s a classic slippery slope; how many will there be next time, and the time after that?
“[Candidates’] arguments will have to be shorter, truncated for the commercial clock, and will result in more outrageous interactions to bump ratings.” Without the presence of an independent broker such as the CPD, she argued, it would lead to “pure political theatre”.
Open to Debate’s report into the deterioration of debate quality attested to the need for drastic format changes from 2020, in order to arrest a decline in moderator control and candidate decorum.
While there were just three interruptions across three debates in the 2004 election between George W Bush and John Kerry – administered by the CPD – the first 2020 Trump-Biden encounter witnessed 76, the group noted. However, the second debate saw just four interruptions, after non-speakers’ microphones were muted following criticism of the chaos three weeks earlier.
When you’ve got an out-of-control child in front of the microphone, the only way to keep order is to cut the microphone. Although, who knows? Trump might fling feces in order to express himself and to get attention. One thing is clear though, from his cracks onstage today: he’s scared and nervous. He is not looking forward to Thursday because he can’t win.
Trump won’t have his cheering crowd to boost every comment that comes out of his mouth. Neither will Biden. But Biden is walking in with truth and facts and Trump cannot overcome that. That’s where he will crash and burn. It will be glorious to see.
It’s been predicted that Trump will get ugly and remind Biden of Hunter’s recent conviction on three felony counts and frankly, I hope that happens. Then Biden can rattle off fact after fact about Trump’s 34 felony counts. Maybe that’s how it will go.
I’ll believe it when it occurs. If they refer to this fascist as ‘Mr. president’, I’ll stop ingesting the propaganda.
I think you omitted a word somewhere in your comment. Perhaps a “don’t” between “they” and “refer?”
since the fascist in question is NOT the current President, no.
the comment stands as written.
I think some of the critics of the upcoming debates’ format are more concerned that their voices have been ignored since the CPD didn’t seem to do that great a job in 2016 or until after the first debate of 2020 rather than actually having any valid criticisms.
The whole issue of commercial breaks, for instance. Oh, woe is us. That future debates might have more commercials. Well, who’s to say the debates couldn’t, you know, run over their scheduled time slot with added commercials? Pro football, for instance, has four quarters of 15 minutes each, and yet–for some odd reason–networks carve out a full three HOURS for a televised game (and a lot of games exceed that generous allocation). Or, when was the last time the Oscars managed to end on-time, even with “strict time limits” for Oscar winners’ speeches and all the pre-show rehearsals (for the production numbers and performances)?
So, the debates add more commercials in the future. The candidates get time to “regroup”–oh, no! Unless the actual rules change regarding debating, I don’t see how any time to “regroup” will really benefit one side or the other since most debates don’t allow the participants to come back to a “settled” point. I would also think the moderators would not be so stupid as to “go to commercial” in the middle of one side’s making an argument or between candidate A’s response and candidate B’s response/rebuttal. The moderators are supposed to be folks who work on news programs; it’s not like they usually cut to commercial in the middle of a story. You’re not sitting there watching the news and the anchor or the correspondent is doing the story and, all of a sudden, you get a “but before we go any further, we now interrupt this story for this important commercial message.” Maybe that happens in some kind of extended news program (think along the lines of the old “Nightline” when the show typically featured just one news story for the entire broadcast) but not with the typical regular news broadcast. Normally, they’ll run the “big” news story and, once they’ve finished, then a commercial break before resuming with another story or two (maybe three) and then another commercial break–lather, rinse, repeat.
it’s weird because they said there would b a commercial break during the state of the union and there wasn’t. 1.5 hrs is enough with no breaks at all. Ridiculous, this is a presidential debate, not a game show.
Joseph…I’m not sure how you’ve missed the numerous interviews with Trump where they call him ‘Mr. president’, WHEN HE IS NOT THE PRESIDENT. THAT’S PROPAGANDA.
Thanks Nancy for paying attention.
“…in an effort to reduce the theatrical gladiatorial bloodsport element that has threatened to overwhelm recent debates…and candidate decorum.”
Gee, folks, did I miss the part that BOTH candidates were misbehaving in 2016 and 2020?
Hmm, guess I must have been watching different debates.
Only ONE candidate misbehaved both times. ONLY ONE!!!
Too bad they didn’t bother to identify which one.
The real story:
After ONLY Trump misbehaved badly in both debates in both 2016 & 2020, the new format will attempt to overcome any antics he might choose to try this time, by cutting off microphones and… Both Democratic candidates, Mrs. Clinton and President Biden, behaved professionally and courteously in spite of Trump’s antics.
See where bothsiderism creeps in everywhere?!?
I’d argue for complete transparency in the debates. Not only would candidates take drug tests, they would strip naked and do the debates in the nude. Then we could appraise both their mental and physical attributes, and judge their fitness for office in a very explicit way. trump seems eager to display his beautiful body and I’m sure would jump at the opportunity. Or am I wrong?
TRUMP NAKED???!!
OMG!!!
NOT ENOUGH BRAIN BLEACH IN THE WORLD TO CLEAR THAT IMAGE!!!!!
AAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH………
I’d rather visit the morgue to view bodies.