CNN anchor Chris Wallace said Wednesday that the CNN presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump will be held without spectators, creating a “cleaner” experience for both the candidates and viewers watching at home. He said it would be.
Mr Biden and Mr Trump reached an agreement on Wednesday for two presidential debates in which the presumptive candidates from the major parties will go head-to-head on national television. CNN announced on June 27th that ABC would host a debate on September 10th.
Wallace, who has moderated two presidential debates, said on CNN that he thinks the influence the audience has on candidates has been greatly “overstated,” but supports the decision not to have an audience in the June debate. expressed.
“It’s very restrained,” Wallace said of the on-stage debate setting. “No one is paying attention to the audience or playing with the audience. Well, sometimes the crowd intervenes, and as the emcee you have to try to keep them quiet.”
“I think it’s better without an audience. I’ve felt that way for a while,” he added.
Wallace pointed out that in the 1960s, debates between Presidents Kennedy and Nixon did not have an audience, only in television studios.
“I think it makes for a cleaner, purer experience,” Wallace said. “But I don’t think there’s much of a difference when it comes to candidates, because you have to worry about what you’re saying, what other people are going to say, and what the host is going to ask.” Because I’m focused on what I’m doing. I’m not sitting there and playing to the crowd like at a rally.”
Wallace moderated the 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Biden, aiming to keep the debate open between the candidates but ultimately becoming highly heated and unruly. It became a thing. Wallace, who was a Fox News anchor at the time, later described the debate as a “chaos” and noted that Trump interrupted the debate more than 100 times that night.
Asked Wednesday what the best approach would be for whoever ends up moderating the debate, Wallace raised the possibility that “if it’s not your time, if you’re not speaking, your microphone will be turned off.” did.
“The problem is that when you have a free conversation, as we saw in that debate, it’s not like, ‘I’m going to talk for two minutes and you’re going to talk for two minutes,'” Wallace said. . “It’s pretty hard to turn the mic on and off, because you want to engage with them.”
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Trump frequently lashed out at Wallace, with Wallace accusing Trump of premature and false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election, and Trump raising the issue. The feud between the two men reached a climax when they promised to take the case to the Supreme Court to stop it. Votes don’t count.
On the Wednesday after the election, before the results were tallied, the then-Fox News anchor called the race “a very flammable situation” and said, “The president just threw a match at it.” added.
“He didn’t win these states, no one said he won these states. The states didn’t say he won,” he said.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
