Facebook Twitter Tumblr Close Skip to main content FactCheck.org® A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center ![\\"Become](\\" mini.png\\"/) ![\\"Follow](\\" twitter.png\\"/) ![\\"Get](\\" ![\\"Follow](\\" instagram-1.png\\"/) ![\\"Sign](\\" ![\\"Help](\\" FactCheck.org® * Home * Articles * Featured Posts * FactCheck Posts * SciCheck * En Español * 2024 elections * Players Guide 2024 * Debunking Viral Claims * Ask a Question * Ask FactCheck * Ask SciCheck * Donate * Topics * President Biden * Donald Trump * Kamala Harris * JD Vance * Tim Walz * health * Coronavirus * immigration * climate change * View All * About Us * Our Mission * Our Process * Our Funding * Our Staff * Undergraduate Fellows * Awards * Request a Correction * Contact Us * Search * More * Viral Claims * Subscribe * Instagram * Threads * YouTube * X (Twitter) * Facebook * TikTok * FactCheck On the Air * Mailbag FactCheck Posts # Trump Renews Unfounded Claim on Debate Mic By Robert Farley Posted on December 16, 2019 * 6.4K * * * * President Donald Trump wrongly claimed the Commission on Presidential Debates was “forced to publicly apologize for modulating” his microphone in the first 2016 general election debate. The bipartisan commission did not apologize for any willful tampering, but acknowledged “there were issues regarding Donald Trump’s audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall.” Trump’s wariness about the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonprofit entity that sponsors the events, goes back to the first presidential debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in September 2016, when Trump raised issues about what he said was a “defective mic” and suggested it may have been deliberate trickery. He also labeled the debate “rigged” because the “head guy used to work for Bill Clinton.” As we wrote then, the commission was co- chaired by a former Clinton aide and a former Republican National Committee chairman. The CPD currently has three co-chairs: Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., who was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1983 to 1989; Dorothy Ridings, formerly a newspaper journalist, president of the League of Women Voters and president and chief executive officer of the charitable Council on Foundations; and Kenneth Wollack, a former president of the National Democratic Institute who once served on the national staff of Democrat George McGovern’s presidential campaign in 1972. The New York Times reported on Dec. 12 that Trump and his advisers were discussing the possibility of opting out of the general election debates in 2020 due to Trump’s concerns about the commission. Trump responded to that news report in a series of tweets on Dec. 16. > I look very much forward to debating whoever the lucky person is who > stumbles across the finish line in the little watched Do Nothing Democrat > Debates. My record is so good on the Economy and all else, including > debating, that perhaps I would consider more than 3 debates….. > > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2019 > ….to me, and there are many options, including doing them directly & > avoiding the nasty politics of this very biased Commission. I will make a > decision at an appropriate time but in the meantime, the Commission on > Presidential Debates is NOT authorized to speak for me (or R’s)! > > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2019 In the spin room after the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, 2016, at Hofstra University, Trump complained that “they gave me a defective mic” and questioned whether that was done “on purpose.” Four days after the debate, the CPD released a terse statement saying there was a technical glitch with Trump’s microphone that affected his volume in the debate room, but did not affect the audio for the 84 million people who watched the debate on television. > Commission on Presidential Debates, Sept. 30, 2016: Regarding the first > debate, there were issues regarding Donald Trump’s audio that affected the > sound level in the debate hall. We reached out to the commission seeking clarification about what, specifically, the technical issue was and why it affected Trump’s microphone and not Clinton’s. We’ll update this story if we get a response. According to the New York Times, Trump said after the debate that “the changing volume had distracted him and alleged again that someone had created the problem deliberately.” ”They had somebody modulating the microphone, so when I was speaking, the mike would go up and down,” Trump said. ”I spent 50 percent of my thought process working the mike.” The Times noted that there was “no evidence of sabotage.” We note that CPD did not “apologize” as Trump said, nor did it admit to “modulating” his microphone, which suggests intentional meddling. But the CPD did acknowledge there had been a technological malfunction that affected Trump’s audio in the debate room. In a CNN op-ed in February pushing back against criticism that it shuts out third-party candidates from debates, the two CPD co-chairs at the time stated: “The CPD is run by an independent board made up of independents, Republicans and Democrats. It receives no party or government funding, and no major party official serves in any capacity with the CPD.” The CPD, which has sponsored all of the presidential debates since 1988, released a statement on Dec. 16 saying, “Our record is one of fairness, balance and non-partisanship.” The commission has issued a schedule of three general election debates, starting with one on Sept. 29, 2020, at the University of Notre Dame, as well as a vice presidential debate on Oct. 7. * Categories * FactCheck Posts * Tags * 2020 Election * Location * National * Issue * Commission on Presidential Debates * debates * People * Donald Trump Previous StoryMeme Makes Flawed Obama, Trump Comparison Next StoryDubious Quote Attributed to Trump’s Mother Ask SciCheck Q: Are wind farms harmful to the environment? A: Like all energy sources, wind farms have some negative environmental impacts. But getting energy from wind farms results in dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions than getting it from fossil fuels. Read the full question and answer View the Ask SciCheck archives Have a question? Ask us. Donate Now Because facts matter. ![\\"SciCheck\\'s](\\" ##### SciCheck\'s COVID-19/Vaccination Project ###### Preempting and exposing vaccination and COVID-19 misinformation. ![\\"Proyecto](\\" ##### Proyecto de Vacunación/COVID-19 ###### Precaviendo y exponiendo la desinformación sobre el COVID-19 y sus vacunas ![\\"SciCheck\\"](\\" scicheck.png\\"/) ##### SciCheck ###### Fact-checking science-based claims. ![\\"Facebook](\\" facebook.png\\"/) ##### Facebook Initiative ###### Debunking viral claims. ![\\"Players](\\" ##### Players Guide 2024 ###### The special interest groups behind the TV ads. ![\\"Viral](\\" viralspiral.png\\"/) ##### Viral Spiral ###### Don’t get spun by internet rumors. ![\\"Sign](\\" ##### Sign Up ###### Get free email alerts. ![\\"Mailbag\\"](\\" mailbag.png\\"/) ##### Mailbag ###### Letters from our readers. ![\\"On](\\" ##### On the Air ###### Our staff on TV and radio. ![\\"NewsFeed](\\" ##### NewsFeed Defenders ###### A media literacy game to detect misinformation. * Archives * Privacy * Copyright Policy * Contact Us * Report Accessibility Issues and Get Help © Copyright 2024 FactCheck.org ® A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
The socalled Commission on Presidential Debates 3 years ago they were forced to publicly apologize for modulating my microphone in the first debate