Trump Didn't Receive Apology After 2016 Debates

Zach Rathner

Politics

14th October 2020

Trump Didn't Receive Apology After 2016 Debates

No such apology was issued (Getty Images).

The Claim

The Commission on Presidential Debates issued an apology to Donald Trump following the 2016 presidential debates.

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Emerging story

During an October 8, 2020 interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, President Trump stated that the Commission on Presidential Debates interfered with his microphone during the 2016 presidential against Hillary Clinton, and that the Commission issued him an apology after the fact.

Users across social media were quick to refute this claim.

However, some users defended his claim and said that it supported the idea that the entire thing was rigged.

Misbar’s Analysis

The Misbar team has determined that this claim is false. During the Trump claimed the debate commission interfered with his microphone during the 2016 presidential debates against Hillary Clinton, saying: "Now you have this debate commission is a joke. The commission's a joke. Take a look at the letter they wrote me four years ago, when they apologized. They were oscillating my mic. They were turning it up and down when I was speaking to Hillary, crooked Hillary."

There is no record of the debate commission sending any such letter to Trump. There was an issue with Trump’s microphone during the debate, however, which was acknowledged by the commission. During his first debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump’s voice was disrupted by a technical malfunction that affected the volume of his microphone.

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The statement is not an apology, but rather a statement of fact.

This is not the first time Trump has brought up problems with his microphone during that debate to claim that the debate may have been rigged. He also made this claim on Twitter in December 2019.

Despite the admittance of the debate commission that there were problems with Trump’s microphone during his debate with then democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, there has been no official apology ever given out by the commission.