Is there no one with a spine on the debate commission? Do not ASK---ANNOUNCE that in all future

[Atticus]

debates, each candidate will have the microphone ONLY when it is their turn to speak. The candidate who is not supposed to be speaking will have a dead mike at their podium.

And, IF Trump refuses to accept that, they should give Biden the 90 minutes of national air time on a stage with an empty chair labelled "Donald Trump".

This is not complicated. It just take takes a few people who are willing to step forward and say "This will not stand!" and mean it.

[Coleman]

1. My take on format

Each are in separate locations away from the moderator. Mic gets turned off when time expires. So it can yell all he wants and it will not interrupt Biden's response.

Actually, just go back to the town meeting format.

[Laelth]

2. That won't fix the problem.

Trump will raise his voice even higher. He will still be interrupting Biden (who can hear him quite well), and the online/television audience will be able to hear Trump over Biden’s microphone.



-Laelth

[lagomorph777]

5. No need for a physical location. Let Turd yell as loudly as he wants from the Oval Office.

The moderator, in New York or LA, simply won't care.

[Laelth]

6. Admittedly, separating the candidates physically and muting Trump could work.

But that seems unlikely given the current circumstances. The formats/rules have already been agreed to, and I can’t see them being effectively re-negotiated now.



-Laelth

[lagomorph777]

8. I think Trump will back out.

Why would his handlers let him shoot himself again?

[Laelth]

10. They can't stop him.

Nobody (other than Vlad Putin, perhaps) can tell Donald Trump what to do.

-Laelth

[lagomorph777]

11. True. But it's his loss if he chooses to do it again.

[Laelth]

12. He can't help himself.

He can only, ever be the small-minded, abusive, bullying, personality-disordered, childish, petty, and stupid racist that he is.

-Laelth

[Atticus]

13. Trump repeatedly abandoned any agreement regarding the debate format. There's

nothing to renegotiate. But, the commission could offer a new format and provide air time for all who agree to it.

[Laelth]

14. I suspect that the town hall format will better constrain Trump.

But who knows? My point was that there’s very little that the Debate Commission can do now to change the rules. If Trump agreed to a change, fine, but why would he?



-Laelth

[Atticus]

15. I think he may be slightly "constrained" by the town hall format, but will still embarrass himself

and any American with a sense of shame. I do not believe the commission is bound go honor any "rules" when Trump does not.

[Laelth]

16. Bound to? Perhaps not.

But I suspect that they want to be honorable and keep their promises (i.e. continue to keep the promises they made and follow the rules to which they agreed). Honorable people are at a significant disadvantage when fighting against people who don’t think that the rules apply to them and who don’t keep their promises.

-Laelth

[Atticus]

18. In my view, there is no dishonor in refusing to further perform your part of an agreement

in the future when other party has already refused to honor their obligations per the same agreement.

If you agree to deliver a cord of firewood to me each month and I agree to pay $100 for each delivery as soon as you unload it and then I refuse to pay you for the first cord, will you continue to "honor" our agreement?

[chriscan64]

3. There is something horribly, horribly wrong

if we have to consider putting the President of the United States in a sound proof booth from a game show because rules are a speed bump to him.

[Atticus]

4. There IS something horribly, horribly wrong! nt

[Laelth]

7. +1 n/t

-Laelth

[Wounded Bear]

9. Fuck it. Give the moderator a portable horn...

Somebody goes off the rails, give them a blast.



I guaran-fucking-tee that they'll need it a lot more for Trump than for anybody else.

[maxsolomon]

17. I would assume the rules for all 3 remaining debates (including the VP debate)

are already agreed to by both sides and final. a "kill switch" will not be added.

Trump could very well switch tactics in the next go-round, embracing something that apes "Presidential" norms, and switch back to abusive badgering the next.

He is a lifelong, skilled, sociopathic abuser of anyone and everyone: women, creditors, contractors, the IRS, business partners, employees, our allies, the religious, the poor, and his family.