The second US presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will be held on Thursday, 22 October.
The Presidential Debate Commission has said that it will feature a mute button to allow candidates to speak uninterruptedly, reported Reuters. The decision was taken in a bid to avoid disruptions that happened in the first presidential debate on 30 September.
The organisers also said that the candidates will be given uninterrupted two minutes to answer the moderator’s question at the beginning of each 15-minute segment of the debate.
The candidates will not be muted during the open discussion that will happen afterwards. These rules were inducted after the first presidential debate, during which President Trump talked over Biden and the moderator, The Guardian reported.
Trump had earlier disagreed about the virtual format following his COVID-19 infection. At that time Trump had issues about having his microphone muted.
In an interview with Fox Business on 8 October, Trump said: “You sit behind a computer and do a debate - it's ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want,” reported Reuters.
On Monday, during his campaign, Trump said that he was upset with the set of topics for the second debate.
Trump argued that the debate should focus more on foreign policy.
Whereas Biden’s campaign said that both the sides had previously agreed on letting the moderator choose the topic of the debate, reported Reuters.
(With inputs from Reuters and The Guardian)
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