A Virtual Debate Is Nothing More Than A Ploy To Protect Joe Biden

[mystery-ak]

 A Virtual Debate Is Nothing More Than A Ploy To Protect Joe Biden

By moving the prime time event into a remote setting, voters are also given limited faith that Biden won't be relying on staff notes or a teleprompter.

By Tristan Justice
October 8, 2020

The independent Commission on Presidential Debates announced Thursday next week’s town hall head-to-head match-up will now be a virtual event following the president’s infection with the novel Wuhan coronavirus “in order to protect the health and safety of all involved.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden was predictably open to the idea only to be immediately rejected by the Republican incumbent.

“I’m not going to waste my time at a virtual debate,” Trump said on Fox Business Thursday in his first interview since his confirmed diagnosis with the coronavirus. “They’re trying to protect Biden.”

Given that a virtual format will certainly play to the benefit of the Democratic challenger, the president has a point. Besides the fact that a virtual debate erases presidential tradition, the proposed change promises to tune out voters by presenting them with a two-hour long Zoom call. Does anyone remember much from the virtual Democratic National Convention less than two months ago?

Tactically, Biden is the one who stands to gain by moving the intimate town hall setting to a cable-television style match-up where there’s no way for the president to flex his physical presence on stage to engage in a dynamic conversation. In 2016, Trump was accused of intimidating Hillary Clinton on the red carpet, which Clinton admitted made her uncomfortable. Last week, the president appeared to be dominating a frail-looking 77-year-old Democrat on stage, clearly agitating the former vice president. Whether Trump’s domineering strategy is effective, (or productive), might remain an open question, but whether it’s a key stripped from the president’s tool box by moving the debate to a virtual format, there’s no doubt.

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https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/08/a-virtual-debate-is-nothing-more-than-a-ploy-to-protect-joe-biden/

[Cyber Liberty]

It's all about controlling the microphone.

[Right_in_Virginia]

It's all about controlling the microphone.

In virtual settings it's all about Joe reading the answers preloaded onto his teleprompter. 

[Cyber Liberty]

In virtual settings it's all about Joe reading the answers preloaded onto his teleprompter.

The two are not mutually exclusive.  The "Commission" wants to cut the mic, the Rats want Sloe Joe to be able to read his answers provided by his staff.  Trump is correct to dig in his heels because he suspects both will be rampant in a Zoom Debate.