Debate Commission Now Says Trump Had Audio 'Issues' Monday Night

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo

After Donald Trump complained that his microphone at the first presidential debate was "terrible," the Commission on Presidential Debates issued a short statement Friday saying that the Republican nominee's audio had "issues."

"Regarding the first debate, there were issues regarding Donald Trump's audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall," the statement from the debate commission read.

-snip-

"I had a problem with a microphone that didn't work," he said on "Fox and Friends" Tuesday morning. "My microphone was terrible. I wonder, was it set up that way on purpose? My microphone, in the room they couldn't hear me, you know, it was going on and off. Which isn't exactly great. I wonder if it was set up that way, but it was terrible."

The one-sentence statement from the debate commission did not suggest that the audio issues Trump experienced affected the television broadcast of the debate.



Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/debate-commission-trump-microphone

[global1]

1. You Got To Be Kidding....nt

[radical noodle]

2. TV wasn't affected

I could hear him just fine. Sniffles and all.

[forgotmylogin]

37. Well, that certainly negates everything horrible that we thought he said.

[underpants]

3. Oops duped you

Sounds like appeasing the campaign to me.

[Delphinus]

35. That's my first thought too.

[George II]

4. There was nothing wrong with the broadcast, if anything it was only inside the hall. There....

....were only a couple of hundred people there live, no big deal.

If there WAS a serious problem, why didn't anyone say anything at the time?

[world wide wally]

36. Nobody who was inside ever said anything about the sound except Trump

[regnaD kciN]

5. Technically, that wouldn't be a problem with the MICROPHONE…

…but with the audio chain downstream of where it went to the television feed.

It's quite possible that happened; it might have even been somewhat distracting. But, if you can let audio talkback issues stress you out to the point where they make you turn in a shambolic performance like Monday night's, how are you going to handle REAL pressure, like an international crisis?

[MountainMama]

51. Ding, ding, ding!!

That's the question everyone should be asking themselves.

[still_one]

6. Did the microphone put words in trump's mouth?

[lady lib]

28. Obviously not. Microphone words are smarter.

[still_one]

33. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Last edited Fri Sep 30, 2016, 05:43 PM - Edit history (1)

[madokie]

7. Who in their right mind

would even want to hear what he has to say about anything. My late border collie made more sense than tRump.

I swear that if something would have happened to me while we were out going down the road in our pickup that incapacitated me I believe if she could have reached the pedals she could have and would have got me to help.

I so miss Roxy our family member, some call pets

Beautiful girl she was

[Wilms]

13. That's not a fair comparison.

Borders are smarter than most people.

[ColemanMaskell]

24. Yup

Agreed, dogs are reliable. I'd take my poodle-mix over the likes of Trump anytime, more so in a crisis. At least you know that if the dog can do anything at all, the dog will work for you 100%, and not against you.

[Brother Buzz]

27. My late great border collie, Sally, was a great driver but she was easily distracted....

especially when we drove past a band of sheep.

[smirkymonkey]

47. Awwww! What a sweetie!

Such a soulful little face!

[Brother Buzz]

50. She was a twice-rescued dog with some issues that were ultimately resolved with a lot of work...

and play.

She also had an advanced degree in physics: she instinctively knew where the ball would be before it even ricocheted off a wall.

We miss her dearly, but we have another rescue dog to help fill the void: PEARL, the WONDER DOG (the doppelganger's eyes are fine, she was just leery of everything early on)

[smirkymonkey]

60. Awww! Very cute! How good of you to rescue them!

I am sure your dogs had/have a very happy home!

[Botany]

31. Sounds like Roxy had you well trained.

BTW my neighbors used to have a little female border collie and she
had total command over my 90 pound black lab.

Maybe your post is a sign to all of us to go and pet our dogs and forget
about what that little fingered cheeto colored shit gibbon says.

BTW part 2 Trump in the debate had one sentence where he spoke about
ISIS' web sites, bad trade deals and General Douglas MacArthur. And I really
don't think that pile of codswallop was because of any technical issues with
the mic and or audio but because Trump is full on crazy.

[bellmartin]

63. Madokie, don't damn your beautiful border collie with such faint praise!

She could probably beat trump in a spelling contest. More seriously, if someone would devise some sort of 100-task test to measure real intelligence, I think it would be no contest. Roxy would have humiliated him.

Bless Roxy and bless you. My not-young-anymore lovely border collie Jenny is happily pressed up against my calf as I write. I do feel your pain.

[LynneSin]

8. Are you freaking kidding me?

If it's not working SAY SOMETHING

I wonder who put pressure on the Debate Committee?

[ColemanMaskell]

29. Could be he did not know at the time that the people in the hall could not hear.

That's his entire complaint apparently. People in the hall had trouble hearing him. Fair enough to note that for future reference and corrective action on subsequent debates. However, it does not affect the outcome from the viewpoint of anyone except those people in that hallway.

BUT there was an obvious problem with the elevation and tilt of the microphone, which caused him to bend forward whenever he spoke into it.

Presumably he could have tilted the mike up a bit to correct for that, but he did not. If that was not possible, he could have called for a hardware tech to correct it. If he cannot take action to do a small thing like adjust a microphone, how can he be expected to react to real-world emergencies? . . . Maybe complain after the fact that the weather channel should have warned him what devastation the hurricane would do? That scientists should have warned him about those earthquakes caused by fracking? Uh, scratch that last one, they are warning about that.

I agree with you that it is remarkably odd that he would not see and correct a minor equipment problem immediately, and it really makes you wonder what he would do when the first real emergency hits. (Hopefully we won't ever have to find out.)

[George II]

39. He kept moving the microphone, which could have caused any problem that existed.

[ColemanMaskell]

66. Good point.

I did not watch the whole thing, just the highlights. He could have introduced problems by fiddling with the microphone during the part(s) I didn't see. Also if he created a problem himself it would explain another piece of information: He was complaining that the mic had been okay an hour earlier when he first tried it, and then it developed a problem after a short while. That could easily be an accurate observation (amazingly) if he introduced the problem himself by futzing around with the mic. Also in that same whining session he seemed to be adding to his tale(s) of woe: His alleged hardship(s) seemed to expand beyond the simple contention that the (relatively small) audience in the hall could not hear him well; In the expanded story his mic was acting up in various ways such as crackling sounds and similar loose-wire or mild feedback behaviour. If he was moving the mic around a lot, he could have introduced problems of that sort -- but I doubt it happened, because the audio was just fine in all the video material I played, and seemingly in everything heard by everyone else who's been commenting on it. But it could be that he messed the mic around enough to introduce distortion effects that only he could hear.

[sdfernando]

43. Well, the audience did burst out in woops at the meantion of the emails.....

so that tells me they could hear him just fine.

And that wasn't the only time the audience "participated" either.

[PJMcK]

9. Audio can be tricky

There are a lot of things that can affect an audio signal from the microphone, through the cables, mixer and outboard gear, into an amplifier and then sent to speakers.

In the case of Monday night's debate, each candidate had a single microphone but this would have been mixed and split into several busses or feeds. One buss would be the audio sent to the broadcast feed. Another buss would go to the speaker system in the auditorium. There were probably other feeds for other uses.

Accordingly, it's not really surprising that the television audio was fine but that there could have been something wrong in the house system. On another thread, I asked DUer brooklynite, who attended the debate, if he had any observations about the audio but I haven't received a response yet.

It's really irrelevant because the television audience heard and saw Mr. Trump just fine. Additionally, he couldn't have known about the audio problems until after the event so it wouldn't have affected his performance anyway.

[longship]

10. Not evident on the broadcast!

So there's that!

[Orrex]

11. Trump's only "audio issue" is that people were able to hear him.

[riversedge]

12. No problem with your mic Donald-your Annoying sniffles came though loud and clear.

[unblock]

14. what didn't work is hillary kept talking through his interruptions.

[groundloop]

15. Sure Donnie... your debate preparation was just fine... the mic caused all the bad stuff

Prepare for your next two debates exactly the way you did this one and you'll have nothing to worry about. The incompetent people who set up the sound system will be fired, you'll be assured of a great performance next time because you'll have a perfect mic (probably the greatest mic a presidential candidate has ever had).

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

16. *Sniff*... *Sniff*

Phewee... Smells kinda like bribery.

[truthisfreedom]

17. Good.

And I hope his hair falls out in clumps.

[Mme. Defarge]

18. Given his gawdawful performance

would this not have been to Trumps advantage? Could he have rigged the system to assure this outcome?

[TheCowsCameHome]

19. This asshole needed more preparation - Preparation H.

[benld74]

20. And here I thought this weekend

Would be quiet for a change.
Crap storm from right
In
3
2
1

[ColemanMaskell]

21. do-over! DO-OVER ! More debates !! Let's drag this game out . . .

[Laser102]

22. So all the stupid stuff he said was really the microphone? CNN is trying to say it knocked him off

his game. I have to ask, what game?

[getagrip_already]

26. really?

so a mildly annoying technical issue can fluster him to the point of incoherence?

And they really want to go with that?

I'm down with that.

[inwiththenew]

23. The system is rigged!

[hibbing]

25. o, ffs n/t

[Friend or Foe]

30. Sh!!t

Drumpf ALWAYS has "audio issues"

[beachbum bob]

32. I video streamed AND recorded the debate and nowhere did I ever hear any audio issues

seems bogus and some one aat debate commission giving whiney donald some cover for his pisspoor performance...which the audio would not play into it any ways.

its laughable

[bananas]

62. It didn't affect the tv or streams, only the audience loudspeakers

They were probably trying to create a Dean Scream effect, where he'd be talking loudly for the audience to hear him, but people watching tv or online streams would think he was yelling for no reason.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iowa-caucus-speech-howard-dean_us_56afbaf3e4b057d7d7c7ba8c

The Real Story Of The Most Memorable Iowa Concession Speech Of All Time

Twelve years later, they’re still talking about Howard Dean’s scream.
02/01/2016

<snip>

Dean’s microphone, it turned out, had been plugged directly into the television cameras. Inside the room, you could barely hear him over the crowd, but he appeared to be screeching to those watching on TV.

The campaign quickly sensed trouble. O’Connor’s cell phone buzzed when the speech was over, with a college roommate of Dean’s on the line.

“What’s wrong with Howard? Is he having a breakdown?” the roommate asked.

Yet Dean wouldn’t get his first inclination that “a moment” had taken place until two hours later, as he was getting on the plane heading to New Hampshire.

“Everybody was saying, ‘Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, this is awful,’” he said. “As I have said before, if I looked at myself giving that speech in an empty hall, I would have thought I was crazy.”

[beachbum bob]

65. really who cares what the audience heard.....84 million heard the trump

[C_U_L8R]

34. No one in the hall seemed to notice.

Nor did anyone at home.
The problem seems to be
somewhere between Trump's ears.
Concerning.

[world wide wally]

38. Thanks, Obama!

[packman]

40. The only audio problem was that he opened his mouth

and all the babble in his brain spilled out.

[cstanleytech]

41. The real issue was due to Trump opening his mouth. nt

[Bradical79]

42. Unfortunately for you Don, we heard you perfectly clear

on tv.

[blogslut]

44. Well, at least his makeup wasn't melting.

[INdemo]

45. Bull Shit.

I watched the whole debate and never once did I not hear his every word..That is just total bullshit.
Its like the media,that is the Corporate mafia Media..They cannot help but keep propping dumb ass up every time the A-hole falls on his face.'

[The Genealogist]

46. Sniff I cerntainly sniff didn't have sniff a problem sniff hearing his arrogance loud & clear sniff

[BumRushDaShow]

48. 84 million people heard every deplorable word

out of his mouth just fine.

[WhiteHat]

49. His biggest issue was his sniffing.

The mic couldn't mask his nasal problem, whatever that was.

As far as legibility, he didn't have any problem interrupting Clinton. We all heard about his kid's facility with computers, for whatever that was worth. We all heard him bragging he paid no taxes, we all clearly heard him cheering for the worldwide financial crash. We all heard him loud and clear. So what was the problem, exactly? A bad mic doesn't change his words.

[Hugin]

52. Soooo... Working the refs cast the doubt once again.

I give up.

[KewlKat]

53. His personallity disorder does not allow him to take ANY responsibility for ANYTHING. He is

ALWAYS right, others are always wrong. He's perfect, amazing, yuge you know where, still looks 35, in the mirror, a babe magnet, best business man in the world and can do everything alone.........so if the donald noticed something, why did he not say something.....nope, now has a reason for stinking at the debate.

[rurallib]

54. Unfortunately for Trump the microphone was turned to "ON"

and humans could hear him.

Hope that doesn't happen again

[Ford_Prefect]

55. Frightening dumb animals like that could cause a stampede.

[erpowers]

56. Heard Him

I heard him loud and clear. Also, it seems to me that the people in the hall heard him loud and clear. They responded either positively or negatively to a number of things he said. How could the people in the hall respond to the things he said if they could not hear what he was saying? In addition, if the people in the hall could not hear him why did he not complain during the debate? Why did he not complain, about his microphone, immediately after the debate?

Furthermore, I do not think it was the fault of the microphone that he kept interrupting Secretary Clinton. I am fairly certain the microphone did not cause him to not present specifics about his policy plans. Most likely the microphone would plead not guilty if accused of making Trump say, "maybe that made [him] smart" if he had not paid income taxes for years. The microphone would not need a top notch defense attorney to get acquitted of the charge of forcing Trump to walk into Clinton's one-two punch of maybe if you paid your taxes our government would not be depleted.

It seems to me that the microphone was the least of Donald Trump's problems. The days after the debate no one was complaining about not being able to hear Trump's words. They were complaining about the things he said and the things he did. In fact, it might have been better for him if the microphone had been turned off.

[kacekwl]

57. Stop whinning you weasel,

he'd have been better off if it didn't work at all.

[zonkers]

58. Bwahhh! Welcome to the big leagues Donald.

[ReRe]

59. Ha! Now he's got the debate commission lying. n/t

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

61. Where's the League of Women Voters when you need 'em?

We should put sane people in charge of the debates.

[TrogL]

64. I'm an audio engineer

If Trump doesn't know how to behave behind a microphone in order to make himself understood, there's not much the engineer can do.

[Panich52]

67. So he's upset he couldn't feed off proper audience response?

The response that wasn't supposed to occur in the first place.