MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Final Trump/Biden debate on Thursday but with a mute button to avoid interruptions

The Presidential Commission on Debates said each candidate's microphone at the Nashville debate would be silenced to allow the other to make two minutes of opening remarks

A final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden will feature a mute button to allow each candidate to speak uninterrupted, organizers said on Monday, looking to avoid the disruptions that marred the first matchup.

The Trump campaign voiced objections to the change – made after the president repeatedly talked over both Biden and the moderator at last month's debate in violation of its agreed-upon rules – but said the Republican would still take part in the Thursday night event, one of his last chances to reach a large prime-time audience before voting ends on Nov 3.

The Presidential Commission on Debates said each candidate's microphone at the debate in Nashville, Tennessee, would be silenced to allow the other to make two minutes of opening remarks at the beginning of each 15-minute segment of the debate. Both microphones will be turned on to allow a back-and-forth after that time.

“President Trump is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last-minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favoured candidate,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said.

More than 30 million Americans have already cast their ballots, limiting Trump's chances of reframing a contest that national and state opinion polls show him trailing.

Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during a chaotic and ill-tempered debate on Sep 29, at one point provoking Biden to snap: “Will you shut up, man?”

Trump backed out of a second scheduled debate set for last Thursday over a disagreement about the virtual format following his COVID-19 infection. At that time, he raised concerns about having his microphone muted.

“You sit behind a computer and do a debate – it's ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want,” Trump said in an Oct 8 interview on Fox Business.

Earlier on Monday, Trump's campaign said it was unhappy with the announced set of topics for Thursday's debate, arguing that it should focus more on foreign policy and asserting that the nonpartisan group was tilted toward Biden.

Biden's campaign said both sides previously agreed to let moderators choose the subjects. It said Trump wanted to avoid discussing his stewardship of the coronavirus pandemic, which surveys show is the top issue for voters.

“As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs,” Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said.

The number of Americans who voted early reached 30.2 million on Monday, according to the University of Florida's United States Elections Project. That number represents more than one-fifth of all the votes cast in the 2016 election.

Early voting is likely to ramp up this week as more states open up voting centers for those who want to avoid possible coronavirus exposure at crowded Election Day polling sites. In Florida, where more than 2.5 million have already voted by mail, residents lined up for the first day of early in-person voting.