Fox News' Chris Wallace, after moderating Tuesday nights raucous debate between President Donald Trump and Democrat nominee Joe Biden, said Friday that he does not want the Commission on Presidential Debates to change the rules and allow a mute switch in the future.
"I have had two objections to that and I've expressed them to the commission," Wallace said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "First on a practical level, if and we are just playing a thought game here, hypothetical, if one person decided that he wanted to continue to interrupt it can probably be picked up on the other candidate's microphone and it would continue to disrupt the debate."
Also, if the moderator has a mute button, that would mean that person would determine what the American people would be able to hear from either candidate.
"I wouldn't do it," said Wallace. "Having said that, the commission hasn't decided if they are going to do anything."
The next presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 15, and if it takes place, given Trump's diagnosis of coronavirus, it will be a town hall event, meaning "real people" will be talking about their problems, and that means the questions are taken out of the moderator's hands.
"I would hope, one, that the president is going to get better, again, that's our overwhelming concern, two, that that we can go on with the campaigns and debates and, three, when we get to the town hall that they are busy answering the questions of real people about their real problems and not playing games with each other."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.