Biden Adviser Lets Cat Out of the Bag on Why 'No Crowd' Debate Demand Was Non-Negotiable for Biden

While President Joe Biden's debate challenge to presumptive 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump dominated headlines this week, the behind-the-scenes demands made by the Biden team regarding the debate particulars did not get the amount of scrutiny they deserved. This, in my view, is primarily because the Usual Suspects in the MSM are in full Protect the Precious mode ahead of the first anticipated debate, which will be hosted by CNN and is currently scheduled for June 27.

As we reported, Biden wanted no live audience, mics cut once the person's time expires and while the other person is talking, only certain (Dem-friendly) news organizations hosting it, and no third-party candidates like RFK Jr. Itching to face Biden, Trump accepted the terms.

Though it was pretty obvious why Biden didn't want a studio audience present, an unnamed Biden adviser admitted in an interview that the "no crowd" demand was absolutely non-negotiable, because a crowd full of voters were people who Trump could feed off of, and whose reactions in the process could potentially derail Biden's debate agenda.

They "wanted to take that away," the adviser conceded:

They resolved in private that if Biden ever faced Trump on a debate stage, there would be no one in the peanut gallery.
That demand became part of the reelection campaign’s agreed-upon proposal to Trump this week for their two general election debates, one in June the other in September. An empty TV studio could, Biden aides feel, deprive their GOP rival of a major advantage when they face off.
“Trump feeds off the crowd, they give him life,” said one Biden adviser who was granted anonymity in order to discuss internal strategy. “We wanted to take that away.”

Relatedly, a one-on-one without a lively audience but which includes liberal media moderators could also make things quiet/controlled enough that Biden would better be able to hear his handlers through an earpiece. Just sayin'.

In any event, as we noted before, these demands are not those of a campaign that really believes Biden "won" the 2020 debates against Trump. In reality, it's a strong signal that they - and Biden - are terrified, and want to manage every single detail as tightly as they do any other event Biden attends.

And as additional proof that Biden is scared, on the same day he challenged Trump to two debates, he went further by echoing Trump's "any time, any place" statement, something that was almost immediately contradicted by Biden-Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon, who responded by saying "President Biden made his terms clear for two, one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms.”

“No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates,” she also said.

In other words, as per the norm, Biden already got in over his skis on this one, and had to be reined in by a handler.

To be sure, this is not really going to be a "debate," as past history has shown us. It's going to be a mudslinging contest, which is likely to bring in people who normally don't watch the debates just to see the spectacle play out.

All of that said, the problem with Biden's debate demands on no crowds and mics being cut is that at the end of the day, Trump is going to have his say and be heard, and will use the moderators' obvious bias against him to his advantage, which will play well to those watching at home who don't suffer from severe TDS.

Not saying Trump has a 4D chess game in mind here, just pointing out for the record that Biden's strategy to throw Trump off his game is more likely to backfire on Biden than it will hurt Trump.