The Trump campaign’s senior adviser for strategy, Steve Cortes, said Thursday that any plans to change the rules for upcoming presidential debates would be a “terrible idea.”
“We haven’t made a conclusive decision as a campaign, so I don’t want to get in front of the folks within the campaign who are actually doing that negotiation, I’m not part of that,” Cortes said on The Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
“My personal input, though, would be that it is a terrible idea,” he added. “No, we don’t cut the mics off the president of the United States in a debate format.”
Cortes said any changes to which the campaign would agree “are sure to be minimal.”
The Republican National Committee and other Trump campaign officials have also signaled they will oppose changes to the presidential debate structure after the nonpartisan commission that manages the events said it’s exploring adjustments in the wake of Tuesday’s chaotic event between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
CBS News reported the commission plans to implement a change that would cut off Trump or Biden’s microphone if either candidate breaks the rules.
Fox News host Chris Wallace, who moderated the first debate and expressed frustration with how it went, said in interviews he disagrees with proposals to allow future moderators to cut the candidates’ microphones.
Cortes told Hill.TV his “main problem” with the format of Tuesday’s debate was that Trump “effectively had to debate two people,” meaning Biden and Wallace.
Cortes said he thought Wallace interceded to “help” Biden and was “far more interruptive” of Trump.
“Rising” host Saagar Enjeti noted in his response that Trump was “far more interruptive” than Biden.
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