Trump himself is a distraction. He doesn’t debate; he bullies and hijacks. (I know we all know that already.) After the Biden/Trump debate, Biden said in an interview (I linked it in another thread here too) that when he (Biden) was answering questions and Trump’s mic was turned off, Trump just kept on shouting. So even though the audience wasn’t hearing Trump at those times, as per the agreed-on rules, Biden was hearing him. Biden said that it was distracting, though he made a point of saying that he wasn’t blaming his own performance on Trump’s behavior. During the debate, though—I watched parts of it—at some times when Biden seemed to lose focus and struggle to put his thoughts together, I had the strong sense that something else was going on in the room that the viewing audience couldn’t see, and that appears to have been true.
The letter of the law for the debate was followed (mics turned off) but the spirit was not.
So, I don’t think that Kamala Harris should agree to a debate (or, “debate”) with Trump unless the rules for the Sept 10 debate could be amended, so that not only would each person’s mic be shut off when it’s not their turn to speak, but also each of them would be in a soundproof booth (or perhaps wear noise-canceling headphones?) and also not be in view of each other. At which point there’s really no point in holding a live debate, as they may as well just give separate interviews.
