The Commission on Presidential Debates has pledged to make changes to the upcoming debates after Tuesday night’s event in Cleveland.
“The CPD will be carefully considering the changes that it will adopt and will announce those measures shortly,” the organization stated.
“The Commission is grateful to Chris Wallace for the professionalism and skill he brought to last night’s debate and intends to ensure that additional tools to maintain order are in place for the remaining debates.”
The event was met with much criticism due to the amount of crosstalk and interruptions. CNN’s Jake Tapper called the event a “hot mess” and his colleague, Dana Bash, followed up by calling it a “sh*t show.” Despite criticisms from the media and general public, members of President Donald Trump’s campaign are strongly opposed to changes being made in future debates.
“They’re only doing this because their guy got pummeled last night,” Trump’s communications director Tim Murtaugh said.
“President Trump was the dominant force and now Joe Biden is trying to work the refs. They shouldn’t be moving the goalposts and changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
Biden’s team has responded to potential rule changes with a sense of determination. The campaign says that they are ready to return for the final two debates under whatever set of rules are presented.
“He’ll be focused on answering questions from the voters there, under whatever set of rules the Commission develops to try to contain Donald Trump’s behavior,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said.
“The president will have to choose between responding to voters about questions for which he has offered no answers in this campaign — or repeating last night’s unhinged meltdown.”
The Vice Presidential Debate is set for October 7, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The second Presidential Debate will follow on October 15, 2020 in Miami, Florida.
