Former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza believes the rules for CNN’s upcoming presidential debate are skewed in favor of President Joe Biden.
Saturday, CNN The rules were announced A number of precautions were taken for the June 27 debate, including muting microphones, commercial breaks, no audience, no opening statements, and no use of pre-prepared notes.
‘[Biden] He’s older…. I think he struggles more with things like live performance than Trump does.”
Previous presidential debates have traditionally been hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, with the audience broadcast live and the candidates’ microphones unmuted.
Syriza Said He was “surprised” the Trump campaign agreed to the rule because, in his view, it favors Biden.
Muted microphone
To limit interruptions, CNN will only unmute the microphones of candidates when it is their turn to speak.
It’s not clear how CNN plans to enforce the rule — whether hosts will manually control the microphones or have producers backstage flip on/off switches — but Cillizza believes the rule clearly favors Biden.
“It’s not good from a debate standpoint, but from a ‘who’s in the best interest of this?’ standpoint, it clearly benefits Biden,” he said.
“If you look back at the two debates between Biden and Trump in 2020, Trump just talks and talks. Same in 2016. He just talks and talks and talks,” Cillizza added. “I think that works to Biden’s advantage because Trump just talks and talks and tries to throw off the pace, the rhythm, the game of his opponent.”
commercial
Until now, presidential debates have been commercial-free, but CNN, hoping to capitalize on expected high ratings to sell advertising, will include two commercial breaks during the 90-minute debate.
Neither Trump nor Biden will be allowed to consult with their campaign staff during the break.
“It probably gives Biden a little bit of time to regroup,” Cillizza acknowledged.
“He’s older. I know he’s only three and a half years older. But I think he’s struggling more with things like live performance than Trump has,” he explained. “I think that’s a good thing for Biden. I think he’d benefit from having a little bit of a breather. So there’s two rules and two good things for Biden.”
No studio audience
Previous presidential debates have featured a studio audience.
But this debate will not include such participants, and Cillizza believes that will work against Trump because the former president knows how to use the power of the audience to motivate himself.
On this point, Cillizza revealed his anti-Trump bias by claiming without evidence that Trump supporters were “more likely” to violate the debate rules than Biden supporters.
“I think this is probably going to be in Biden’s favor,” he said.
“Trump supporters are loud. They’re less likely to follow the debate rules. For example, at every debate they say, ‘Don’t clap. Don’t cheer. Don’t show any emotion towards either candidate until the debate is over.’ And people don’t follow the rules,” he continued. “Given what I know about them, I think it’s less likely that Trump supporters will follow the rules.”
“So there was a lot of cheering and a lot of booing, and I think that might have some effect on how people perceived the debate,” Cillizza continued. “So, here are my three rules and three good points for Biden.”
No pre-written notes
do not have all That’s a plus for Biden, as debate rules banning the use of pre-written notes could work to Trump’s advantage, Cillizza predicted.
In this regard, Cillizza again revealed his anti-Trump bias, but his general theory is probably correct.
“Frankly, Trump doesn’t have that many policy positions to remember in the first place and he just keeps saying them anyway, so nothing actually changes,” he said.
“I think Biden would have a bit of a harder time if he had to improvise. I think he has more policies to memorize than Trump and, at the very least, it’s possible that Biden might appear a bit lost. If he forgets what he’s supposed to say, he can’t look down at his notes and find the one word to remember what he wanted to say,” Cillizza added.
So far, only two presidential debates are scheduled.
Following next week’s debate on CNN, the second debate will be held on September 10th, this one hosted by ABC News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwMVyym-Sw
Do you like Blaze News? Bypass censorship and subscribe to our newsletter to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up here!
