Donald Trump and Joe Biden are set to meet on Thursday for the first of two direct debates in the 2024 campaign, governed by new rules to avoid the issues that arose four years ago during debates.
The president and the former president will meet in a TV studio without a partisan audience, a departure from Trump's previous strategy that relied on energizing his supporters, reported The Guardian.
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To prevent the frequent interruptions that frustrated Biden, the candidates’ microphones will be muted when they are not speaking.
However, these debates are also the first in decades to be hosted exclusively by commercial TV networks, complete with two advertising breaks, The Guardian added.
They will not be overseen by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a longstanding independent and non-partisan body that traditionally governs debate rules.
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Critics have expressed concerns that commercializing the process could result in less substantive, shorter answers focused more on generating conflict and soundbites rather than informing voters.
The intense exchanges between Biden and Trump in 2020, moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, escalated to such a degree that CNN’s Dana Bash famously called the event “a shitshow” live on air, the report added.
Earlier this year, both campaigns opted to bypass the CPD, which had managed presidential debates since 1988.
On June 27, however, Bash and her CNN co-presenter, Jake Tapper, will attempt to outdo Fox’s efforts as they oversee the first debate in Atlanta.
The second debate, scheduled for Sept. 10, will be hosted by ABC. Candidates will not be permitted to use props or have prewritten notes on stage.
They will be provided with a pen, a notepad and a bottle of water.
In the 2004 election debates between George W. Bush and John Kerry, overseen by the CPD, there were only three interruptions across three debates.
Contrastingly, the first 2020 debate between Trump and Biden saw 76 interruptions, a stark increase noted by the group. However, in the second debate, following criticism of the earlier chaos, there were just four interruptions as microphones of non-speakers were muted, The Guardian added.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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