Trump and Democrat Joe Biden will have their microphones cut off in Thursday’s debate while their rival delivers their opening two-minute answer to each of the debate topics.
The 90-minute debate is divided into six 15-minute segments, with each candidate granted two minutes to deliver uninterrupted remarks before proceeding to an open debate. The open discussion portion of the debate will not feature a mute button, but interruptions by either candidate will count toward their time in the second and final debate Thursday.
Trump’s also a bit miffed about the topics chosen for Thursday’s debate.
On Friday, the debate commission announced the following topics that Trump and Joe Biden will discuss during Thursday’s debate:
- Fighting COVID-19
- American Families
- Race in America
- Climate Change
- National Security
- Leadership
Trump would much rather discuss foreign policy because he believes he can use the topic to segue and derail the debate into Hunter Biden because that’s pretty much alls Trump has left. The topics listed above are not Trump’s strong points but, neither is foreign policy. Our allies hate us right now.
Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, wrote in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates that the focus of the next event should be on foreign policy.
“As is the longstanding custom, and as had been promised by the Commission on Presidential Debates, we had expected that foreign policy would be the central focus of the October 22 debate,” Stepien wrote, accusing the commission of trying to “insulate Biden from his own history.”
Normally, foreign policy has been the subject of debate for final debates but back in June, the Commission announced that each moderator could choose his or her own topics.
***News Views will hold a Live Discussion on Thursday’s debate. Please join us—more details to follow.
UPDATE: The Orange Ass’ campaign replies:
