Commission on Presidential Debates Considers Changing Rules After ‘Chaotic’ Debate on Tuesday

Americans Across The Nation Watch First Presidential Debate

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WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 29: People sit and watch a broadcast of the first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at The Abbey, with socially distanced outdoor seating, on September 29, 2020 in West Hollywood, California. The debate being held in Cleveland, Ohio is the first of three scheduled debates between Trump and Biden.

After the first presidential debate on Tuesday which many people described as chaotic, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that they are already considering changing the format of the following debates.

In the statement by the CPD, it said that the last debate made it clear that there is a need to add additional structure in order to make sure that the next debates would offer a more orderly discussion of the issues.

Moreover, it stated that they are carefully assessing the possible changes to adopt and will be announcing them as soon as they reach a decision.

According to NBC News, the CPD has sat down with both Trump and Biden before the debates, until they were able to come up with a set of rules. Thus, it made changing the structure of the debate challenging at the last minute, which proved how the debate spiraled out of control.

Based on the agreed-upon rules, each candidate would be given two minutes to answer most of the questions, uninterrupted. However, as the debate started, Republican candidate repeatedly interrupted Democrat nominee, Biden as he was answering the question, leading the debate to completely deteriorating.

As of the moment, it is unclear how the CPD would make changes to the rules in order to prevent a replay of Tuesday's event from happening. But there were some suggestions that the commission is considering adding the ability to cut off the microphone of the other candidate while the others are talking or when rules are violated.

After the debate of Tuesday, critics were quick to discuss whether both candidates are still worth it to participate in future debates. Dubbing the event as a "hot mess," many suggested in social media and cable television that the only way for a productive debate to push through is if microphones of the candidates who will break the rules will be cut off.

On the other hand, Biden also released a statement to reporters during a campaign stop in Ohio and said that he is hoping for future debates to be more organized and not chaotic.

The moderator of the event on Tuesday, Chris Wallace was also highly criticized for struggling to keep the debate in order. However, he was defended by the CPD who praised his professionalism and acknowledged that it wasn't an easy task to stand in between the two candidates.

In an interview with the New York Times, Wallace expressed sadness about how the debate turned out, saying he did not expect it to go that way.

Wallace also stated that he does not think that muting the microphones would be the solution to the problem or would help calm the debates since he believes that even with the microphone off, those who want to interrupt would still do.

He even stated that the president may have even come up to Biden and took his microphone if his mic was turned off amid the discussion.

As a response to the criticism about what happened on the debate, Trump took it to Twitter and said that the CPD should try getting a new moderator and a Democrat candidate who is smarter.