The Commission on Presidential Debates will allow Vice President Mike Pence to not have plexiglass barriers around him at Wednesday’s debate, a member of the debate commission tells CNN, but both Sen. Kamala Harris and the debate moderator will be allowed to erect transparent barriers between them and the vice president.
The commission and both campaigns have been meeting all day to hammer out last minute details of the debate, the commission member said, and will meet again later this evening, where the commission expects to resolve any outstanding issues.
“She is the one who wanted plexiglass, so if she has plexiglass surrounding her so she is cut off from everyone else, that is fine,” the commission member said. “If he doesn’t want plexiglass, that is up to him.”
The commission member added that it is not a requirement that plexiglass surround Pence to have the debate.
This comes after the commission announced that plexiglass would be used as a barrier to separate the candidates on Monday, leading the Pence team to push back again the proposed changes to account for the coronavirus.
The idea of Harris standing for the debate “went out the window weeks ago” after that Harris team proposed it to the commission. The commission responded by noting that it was a seated debate and the only way they could change it is if the Pence team agreed.
As for the idea of holding the forthcoming presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump outdoors due to the coronavirus, the commission member says that is not true and that they “don’t know where that report came from.”
