In the run up to the first and possibly only debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday night, CNN’s panel of purported journalists tacitly admitted that they favored debate rules that they thought favored Democrats. In this instance, they were collectively whining about ABC News carrying over CNN’s debate rule of muting the candidates’ microphones to prevent interruptions; something CNN was now against since the Harris campaign was against it.

Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, the moderators of CNN's debate, essentially admitted that CNN created the muted mic rule at President Biden’s request because they thought it was helpful to the Democratic candidate. But now that it’s proven to hurt the Democrat, they were suddenly against their own rule:

TAPPER: So, they have been really litigating this idea of microphones being muted for several weeks. It is, those are the rules that Trump and Biden had agreed to, and Harris was trying to get them to change it. They did not change it. The mics are going to be muted if it's not your turn to speak. Does – does that help one side or the other? Obviously, Harris didn't want them muted.

BASH: well, I believe that both the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign say flatly that they think it helps Donald Trump. And they're saying that because of the lesson from our debate on June 27.

And of course, at the time, this was a new rule and it was done at the initially at the request of the Biden campaign because they didn't want Donald Trump to be interrupting Joe Biden all the time. And it turned out that after that debate was over, it was pretty clear that those muted mics gave Donald Trump guardrails. And he couldn't interrupt and he knew that he couldn't interrupt, which is why the Harris campaign tried really hard to change that.

CNN laments that they helped Trump in the first debate by muting Trump's mic. Now, CNN doesn't like that muted mic are being carried over into the ABC debate:
"It helps Donald trump....The muted mics gave Trump guardrails." pic.twitter.com/G44dv6Cqkd

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 10, 2024

After getting mildly drowned out due to what sounded like motorcycles driving by their setup outside the debate hall, CNN host Chris Wallace bemoaned that “the muted mics really prevent this from being a true debate.”

He lamented that such a rule prevented an opportunity to make Trump look bad:

In the 2020 debate that I did, obviously, Trump, they now admit, was kind of out of his mind and interrupted 145 times in 90 minutes. Not that I'm counting. But the fact is, even in that debate, there were some great exchanges. When Trump kept interrupting and Biden said ‘will you shut up, man.’ At one point, I said, would you tell your right-wing supporters – white supremacist supporters, would you disavowed them? And he said like who and Biden said like the Proud Boys. And Trump said, Proud Boys stand back and stand by.

“The problem now with these muted mics, is it really isn't a debate where those interaction. They’re almost like simultaneous news conference,” he griped. Weekend host Abby Phillip agreed: “I think that that's exactly right. I mean, ultimately, that's also part of what the Harris campaign is looking at too. They want the ability for her to kind create a moment potentially with Trump.”

Abby Phillip worries that muted mics will hamper VP Kamala Harris's ability to "create a moment" that makes Trump look bad.
She huffs that because of CNN's mic rules, Biden was "unable to stop" Trump's lies. pic.twitter.com/SXSdnUNMYS

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 10, 2024

Phillip went on to bellyache about how the muted mics prevented Biden and Harris from fact-checking Trump in real-time:

One of the things coming out of your debate, that you and Dana moderated, was that the complaints almost instantaneously that I was hearing from Biden advisors about all the – sort of waterfall of falsehoods coming from Trump and Biden's unwillingness, inability to do both to his actual skill level in that debate and also the rules he couldn't even begin to stop it to stop them.

And I think muted microphones make that job a little bit harder and also raise the bar for what happens when it is her turn, because then she's got to spend the first 30 seconds, 45 seconds rebutting. And that really eats up a lot of that time.

Well, well, well, isn’t the consequences of CNN’s own actions?

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

CNN’s Debate Night in America
September 10, 2024
7:20:33 p.m. Eastern

(…)

JAKE TAPPER: So, they have been really litigating this idea of microphones being muted for several weeks. It is, those are the rules that Trump and Biden had agreed to, and Harris was trying to get them to change it. They did not change it. The mics are going to be muted if it's not your turn to speak.

Does – does that help one side or the other? Obviously, Harris didn't want them muted.

DANA BASH: well, I believe that both the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign say flatly that they think it helps Donald Trump. And they're saying that because of the lesson from our debate on June 27.

And of course, at the time, this was a new rule and it was done at the initially at the request of the Biden campaign because they didn't want Donald Trump to be interrupting Joe Biden all the time. And it turned out that after that debate was over, it was pretty clear that those muted mics gave Donald Trump guardrails. And he couldn't interrupt and he knew that he couldn't interrupt, which is why the Harris campaign tried really hard to change that.

They didn't want the muted mics because they wanted him to be kind of unfiltered and they wanted him to have the ability to do whatever he was going to do or say whatever he was going to say while Kamala Harris was speaking, so they could have some interaction and it's going to be very hard for that to happen.

(…)

7:23:49 p.m. Eastern

CHRIS WALLACE: But Jake, I would argue that the muted mics really prevent this from being a true debate.

In the 2020 debate that I did, obviously, Trump, they now admit, was kind of out of his mind and interrupted 145 times in 90 minutes. Not that I'm counting.

But the fact is, even in that debate, there were some great exchanges. When trump kept interrupting and Biden said ‘will you shut up, man.’ At one point, I said, would you tell your right-wing supporters – white supremacist supporters, would you disavowed them? And he said like who and Biden said like the Proud Boys. And Trump said, Proud Boys stand back and stand by.

The problem now with these muted mics, is it really isn't a debate where those interaction. They’re almost like simultaneous news conference. You get two minutes to answer, you get two minutes to answer, but you don't get the interaction which has been some of the most memorable moments in the debates since Nixon and Kennedy back in 1960.

ABBY PHILLIP: I think that that's exactly right. I mean, ultimately, that's also part of what the Harris campaign is looking at too. They want the ability for her to kind create a moment potentially with Trump.

One of the things coming out of your debate, that you and Dana moderated, was that the complaints almost instantaneously that I was hearing from Biden advisors about all the – sort of waterfall of falsehoods coming from Trump and Biden's unwillingness, inability to do both to his actual skill level in that debate and also the rules he couldn't even begin to stop it to stop them.

And I think muted microphones make that job a little bit harder and also raise the bar for what happens when it is her turn, because then she's got to spend the first 30 seconds, 45 seconds rebutting. And that really eats up a lot of that time.

(…)