Donald Trump and Joe Biden face having their microphones cut to stop them interrupting each other to avoid a repeat of Tuesday night’s chaotic first US presidential debate.
The commission overseeing the televised pre-election showdowns has announced that it will make changes to the format of the remaining two “to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues”.
One option reportedly under discussion is to give the moderator the ability to cut off the microphone of one of the participants while the other is speaking.
The next debate will be in Miami on October 15 with a final showdown scheduled to take place in Tennessee a week later, 12 days before the election.
More than 73 million Americans watched the President, 74, and Democrat Mr Biden, 77, trade insults during a debate that was almost universally panned by US commentators.
The candidates interrupted moderator Chris Wallace or their opponent 90 times in the 90-minute debate — 71 of them by Mr Trump, according to The Washington Post.
Appearing at a rally in Minnesota last night, Mr Trump said he “enjoyed” the debate and falsely claimed that his challenger was trying to get out of the next two events.
He also gloated about the TV audience, although it fell short of the record 84 million who watched the first debate between Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Earlier, Mr Trump tried to row back on comments during the debate about a far-Right group, which he said should “stand back and stand by” after he was asked to condemn white supremacists.
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Following a backlash over the remarks — seized on by the group as a sign of White House support — he said: “I don’t know who the Proud Boys, if you want to give me a definition… Because I really don’t know who they are. I can say they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.”
He was defended by his daughter Ivanka Trump, who spoke at the Asian Pacific Americans for Trump office in Orlando. “As he likes to say, he’s kept more promises than he’s made, which is actually true,” she said.
