Yahoo News Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s final debate will feature ‘mute’ button following chaotic first clash
A row has broken out over the topics that Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be grilled on during Thursday’s final televised presidential debate as organisers announced that a mute button will be used to limit interruptions.
The Trump re-election campaign sent a scathing letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates bemoaning the absence of foreign policy as one of the six subjects in the second and final square-off between the White House rivals in Nashville.
“As is the long-standing 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. We urge you to recalibrate the topics and return to subjects which had already been confirmed,” Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien wrote.
The debate will be moderated by the respected NBC News Washington reporter Kristen Welker, who yesterday announced that the topics would cover Covid-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership.
Mr Stepien accused Mr Biden of being “desperate to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record” and the commission of trying to “insulate Biden from his own history”.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from rallies in Arizona last night, Mr Trump accused the debate organisers of unfairly changing the topics and said Ms Welker was “totally biased”.
Looking to avoid the disruption that marred the first debate three weeks ago, the commission announced that each candidate’s microphone would be silenced to allow the other to make two minutes of opening remarks at the beginning of each 15-minute segment. Both microphones will be turned on to allow for subsequent back-and-forths.
The President backed out of a second debate set for last Thursday over a disagreement about the virtual format following his Covid-19 infection.
More than 30 million Americans have now cast their ballots ahead of the November 3 election.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris returned to the campaign trail in Florida after a close adviser tested positive for coronavirus.
