Donald Trump's Gag Order Upends Debate
President Donald Trump speaks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. Trump will take the debate stage on Thursday for the first time since he was president.
The nation will tune into the 36th televised presidential debate on Thursday, the first-ever debate where one of the candidates remains under a court-imposed gag order.
Former President Donald Trump will come face-to-face with President Joe Biden for the first time in nearly four years tonight.
Trump notably bowed out of the five Republican primary debates held last year and early this year. CNN, which is hosting the debate, has not revealed which topics will be covered, but there will be comments Trump will have to avoid in order to comply with the existing gag order in his hush money case.
Trump's ability to comment on the witnesses and jurors in the case has been limited since March. He's also been prohibited from attacking prosecutors, court staff and their families. During the trial, Trump was fined $10,000 and threatened with jail time for violating the order 10 times.
However, following his conviction last month, his team has urged Judge Juan Merchan to remove the gag order, arguing that it's no longer justified and emphasizing Trump's need for "unrestrained campaign advocacy" as the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. Merchan agreed Tuesday—two days before the debate—to partially lift the order, allowing Trump to comment on witnesses and the jury as long as he doesn't reveal the identities of the jurors.
Whether the modification will help or hurt Trump in Thursday's debate, however, remains to be seen.
Republican strategist Alex Patton told Newsweek that because Trump "has hardly ever shown self-control," it's likely that the earlier gag order and the fines it threatened have "pent up some things that he will spew."
"He won't be able to control himself, and it will be the same old, tired act of a show that hung around too long," Patton said.
Political consultant Jay Townsend agreed that experts have never been able to predict what Trump will say and even when there are "guardrails" in place, the former president often "find[s] a way to break them."
"Removing the gag order simply means he won't get fined for saying it," Townsend told Newsweek.
But while some think relaxing the gag order will give Trump a chance to express his frustrations with the Manhattan trial and conviction, GOP strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek it would benefit Biden more than Trump.
"This ruling is a gift for Biden, and the current president hopes that Donald Trump will take the bait," Klink said.
"President Biden's campaign team needs the election to be about Donald Trump's less-than-desirable personality traits—felony convictions, harsh and inflammatory words, and a threat to democracy," he added.
"Because Donald Trump is now 'free' to comment on the case, Joe Biden hopes that Trump focuses a significant amount of his energy toward this subject and not about areas where Joe Biden is vulnerable—the economy, an open border, the high costs of consumer goods and an increasingly unstable world."
Among the top issues for undecided voters in battleground states are the economy and foreign policy, topics that have long dominated presidential debates in the United States. Voters have also indicated that both immigration and abortion rights have emerged as major concerns for the electorate.
Townsend said it would be wiser for Biden to focus on these major voting issues than attack Trump over his legal troubles. He also said Biden could benefit from reminding voters about life during the Trump years, specifically his opponent's response to the pandemic.
"Most Americans know Trump has legal problems and was convicted of 34 felonies," he said. "Many have forgotten how bad things were during the COVID crisis. You win elections with information that voters don't already know or have forgotten."
"Biden needs to let voters know where he wants to take the country, to offer a clear vision of what America can be," Townsend said.
Though Trump's guilty verdict has dominated the news cycle, recent polls indicate that it may not be a deciding factor for a lot of Americans.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released on the eve of the debate found that Trump's trial made no difference to more than two-thirds of voters, and roughly 90 percent of Republicans still view the former president favorably.
But there were some warning signs.
Twice as many independent votes said the conviction made them more likely to oppose Trump than support him. A majority of independents also said that Trump received a fair trial.
Prosecutors in Trump's classified documents case have also implored Judge Aileen Cannon to impose a limited gag order on the former president, arguing at a hearing earlier this week that a gag order was necessary to prevent Trump from inviting a "violent act" on law enforcement agents involved in the case.
Cannon did not rule from the bench, so while one could come at a later date, it will not be in effect when Trump takes the stage on Thursday.
The first presidential debate will be moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and held in Atlanta, Georgia. A second debate has been scheduled for September 10. It will be hosted by ABC News with David Muir and Linsey Davis serving as moderators.
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