Why The Rules Of Presidential Debate Actually Advantage Trump Over Biden: Political Strategist

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On "Forbes Newsroom," political strategist Adam Goodman discussed the rules of tonight's presidential debate.

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Transcript

00:00I want to talk about the rules here and talk about who it's going to advantage in your opinion.

00:04Here are the rules laid out by CNN. It starts at 9 p.m., 90 minutes long, two commercial breaks with

00:10no studio audience. They will be standing the whole time. Their mics will be muted except when

00:16it's their turn to speak. They get a pen, a pad of paper, bottle of water, nothing else, no notes,

00:22no props. Who is this benefiting, Trump or Biden? It benefits both of them for different reasons,

00:28depending on what you're talking about. The mic that's turned off after every response to a

00:33question, I think it actually advantages Donald Trump because you saw what happened in the first

00:38debate against Joe Biden in 2020. That didn't go so well when, at that point, President Trump was

00:45going at it. No studio audience, that advantages President Biden because Trump is the master of

00:51the rally, the master of feeding off of an audience. The two moderators, the two CNN moderators,

00:57there is a clear perception that CNN kind of leans left of center and that this would be more

01:04difficult, possibly, for the former president, Donald Trump. It actually may advantage him

01:10because those two moderators know that if they go over what is perceived to be the line of fairness

01:16with the audience, that they're going to get it and probably get it right there live from Donald

01:23Trump. We've seen that kind of engagement before. I always go back to 2012 when Newt Gingrich was

01:30running for the Republican nomination. It was a South Carolina debate. No one knew who was going

01:34to come out of the primary yet. John King, his first question of Newt Gingrich was a question

01:41he asked about his marriage. Newt Gingrich fired back at John King. You could see King thrown back

01:48in his chair and a lot of people reacted negatively. So would Donald Trump engage with one

01:54or both of the moderators from CNN tonight? My money is on it at some point. So maybe that's

02:01an advantage. And the last thing I'll say is the 90 minutes standing. Joe Biden shows energy tonight

02:10and I think everyone is saying, well, what does he have to do? He's got to show that. He's got to

02:14show he can hang in it for 90 minutes. That could advantage Joe Biden just by getting through that

02:2190 minute examination. As you said, these are both veteran debaters. You also said it's the

02:29most important debate potentially ever. So how are they preparing? Because while this might move the

02:36needle, I mean, if there is a misstep that could potentially upend this race. So let's let's talk

02:42about a little piece of trivia. The question is, who won the last five presidential debates, the

02:50three between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the two between Donald Trump and Joe Biden,

02:55according to public polls published after each of those five debates? You know what the answer is?

03:01Not Donald Trump. He actually lost all five on the scorecards of the pollsters after the debate,

03:08and yet seemed to score very well with the American public, certainly in 16.

03:13So rating these things is really kind of perilous. But I think we're going to know who did well

03:20tonight when it's all said and done. Based on our expectations of two people, Brittany,

03:25we actually feel we know very well.

Why The Rules Of Presidential Debate Actually Advantage Trump Over Biden: Political Strategist

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