Debate Moderators to Debate Audiences: SILENCE!
Presidential debates without studio audiences … 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon … 1976 between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford … And now, 2024 …
Which means -- before the upcoming CNN debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, you won't hear anything like what moderator Jim Lehrer told the audience on October 3 , 2000 … before the debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush:
I'm going to sit here and ask questions for 90 minutes.
And you all are going to remain absolutely silent for 90 minutes.
One exciting feature of presidential debates used to be: watching debate moderators give…
The skinny
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