President Donald Trump’s microphone was cut for the first time around 50 minutes into Thursday night’s presidential debate.
After discussing coronavirus response and foreign policy for nearly an hour without either debater being essentially muted by moderator Kristen Welker, the first mic cut came as Trump was criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s healthcare plan.
“Under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine, he won’t even have a choice, they want to terminate 180 million plans. We have done an incredible job on health care and we are going to do even better …” Trump said before his microphone lost power.
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Biden then asked to respond, but was given a question by Welker as the debate continued. (RELATED: Trump Talks Debate Strategy With Fox & Friends Hosts)
After Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden and moderator Chris Wallace during last month’s first presidential debate, the Presidential Debate Commission instituted new rules allowing moderators to cut the mics of candidates. Microphones were also muted during each candidates’ two-minute response to questions.