Former CNN Talker Cilliza Says POTUS Debate Rules Favor Biden

Former CNN political analyst Chris Cilliza has admitted the truth about his former network’s rules for June 27’s debate between President Joe Biden and GOP opponent and former President Donald Trump.

The debate is rigged to help Biden.

On his YouTube Channel, Cilliza explained why the rules favored Biden. Just one of them favors Trump.

No Interruptions

The most important thumb on the scale for Biden is that the two hate-Trump hosts, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will control the mics and can mute Trump so he doesn’t interrupt the verbally challenged president.

“I don’t love it from a debate perspective, but from a who-does-this-benefit perspective, it clearly benefits Biden,” Cilliza opined:

Because if you go back and look at the debates they had, they had two in 2020 between Biden and Trump. Trump just talks and talks and talks and talks, and that’s true in 2016 too. Like he just over and over and over and over again just talks. He interrupts, he bullies. You know, in 2020 Biden said, ‘Hey man, why don’t you just shut up?’”

That was actually probably the most memorable moment of the debate, which probably wouldn’t happen this time around with the muted mics. But regardless, I do think it helps Biden because I think Trump just tries to get you off your pace, off your rhythm, off your game, right? Just by talking and talking and talking, talking. So that’s rule one, benefit Biden one.”

Cilliza also conceded that Biden really can’t handle a serious debate, or at least one without commercial breaks to regain his failing strength.

Noting that previous two-hour debates had no breaks, Cilliza said “there was no room to sort of take a breath. Again, I think this probably benefits Biden a little bit just because he gets a little time to regroup.”

Though only a little more than three years older than Trump, Biden “struggles more with these live-performance kind of things than does Trump.” Although Biden can’t interact with his puppet masters during the breaks, he can “figure out what my message should be” during that time.

“So I think that’s a good thing for Biden,” Cilliza concluded. “I think he benefits from a little breather within. So that’s two rules and two good things for Biden.”

The third rule that benefits Biden is the lack of a studio audience. Trump’s supporters can be loudly supportive. Not having them in the audience this probably benefits Biden,” Cilliza said. “Trump supporters are loud. They are more likely to not follow the debate rules.”

Granted, debate moderators tell the audience not to clap or cheer for a candidate before a debate ends. But “people just don’t follow the rules,” he continued:

I think the Trump people would be less likely to follow the rules just given what I know about them. So you’d have a lot of cheering … a lot of booing, that sort of thing, which I think might sort of impact how people perceive the debate. Okay, so that’s three rules and three good things for Biden.”

Just one rule favors Trump. The candidate can’t have notes or cheat sheets. That helps Trump because he “doesn’t have a ton of policy positions he needs to remember, candidly, and he’s just going to riff anyway, so it doesn’t really change anything.”

On the other hand, Biden struggles when he speaks extemporaneously.

Biden’s having to remember more policy positions “creates the possibility that Biden looks a little lost at some time,” he said:

If he forgets his place, he can’t sort of look down at his notes and see like one word to remind him of what he wants to say.”

Trump Will Be There

To those such as Democrat torpedo James Carville, who say Trump will be a “no-show,” Cilliza offered his analysis on Substack and summarized it on X.

“One persistent myth I keep hearing about is that Donald Trump ISN’T going to show up,” he wrote. “I am utterly convinced the opposite is true: That he will do ANYTHING to be there.”

Trump, he continued, “is certain” that Biden is “failing mentally and physically,” and that Biden’s White House babysitters “are hiding him from the public eye as much as they can to keep people from realizing that fact.”

That “guides all of [Trump’s] decision-making.” He believes Biden can’t “stand and talk intelligibly for two hours straight.”

As well, Trump thinks and “loves the idea that he is fearless, that he will face down anyone at any time.”

Elaborating on Substack, Cilliza said he was “stunned” that Trump not only agreed to the debate but also permitted CNN to host it, particularly given his hostility to the network.

That, and his agreeing to a muted mic, shows just how badly Trump wanted to debate him.

So “I don’t see a cancellation happening,” he continued:

I think it is FAR more likely that Trump goes ahead with the debate and then insists — if the reviews are less than favorable — that a) Biden was on drugs b) Biden had an earpiece so his aides could feed him answers (a LOT of people on the Trump right think this is going to happen!) and/or c) the moderators and the mainstream media were so biased against him — and were openly helping Biden.…

I can totally imagine him coming out of the debate and declaring something like “Despite the angry and very unfair moderators of failing CNN and the debate rules that were put in place to keep Crooked Joe Biden in the game, I went into the lion’s den and won!”

CNN canned Cilliza and hundreds of other staffers in December 2022.

H/T: The Daily Caller