Fox “straight news” anchor: Trump's conspiracy theories about Biden involving secret earpieces and drugs are “part of the narrative”
Martha MacCallum: If Trump does poorly at tonight's debate, his campaign can cite conspiracy theories about drugs or an alleged secret earpiece
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From the September 29, 2020, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
MELISSA FRANCIS (FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR): As negotiations over tonight's debate and future debates continue, we are just learning that the Trump campaign is requesting to have third party inspectors check both candidate's ears for electronic devices or transmitters. We are being told that the president has consented to this kind of inspection, but Joe Biden has declined.
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I want to ask Martha since you are the reporter that's the ground there. Are you hearing this back and forth? I mean, we are just getting this news. The president wants everyone to look in the ears, or someone who's unbiassed who's not part of either campaign, a neutral source to look in the ears of both candidates to see if there is a device in there. Joe Biden says no way.
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What is your take on this? What are you hearing? And is this about getting inside the other guy's head?
MARTHA MACCALLUM (FOX NEWS ANCHOR): Yep, bingo, that's what it's about. Bathroom breaking news, transmitters, and drugs. That's where we are right now in the back and forth. What you are seeing is sort of the debate equivalent of trash-talking before a game.
And if Joe Biden comes out there does a great job, you have got a narrative that's ready to go. You know, he must have been on something, he must have had somebody giving him answers in his ears.
But this is the way that the Trump campaign lays down these markers ahead of time and says we're willing to submit to all of these things. Why aren't you?
Then you've got the Biden campaign saying we're not. And so that becomes part of the narrative for today.
And, you know, how Joe Biden will perform up there is one of the biggest questions of tonight. It's a 90-minute debate. It's a long back and forth. His side we are told did ask if they could have two breaks over the course of that 90 minutes. That request was denied. The Trump team, on the other hand, saying, you know, our guy does 90 minutes stand up at rallies no problem a couple of times, three times sometimes a week.
You know, you see both sides. The opponents trying to soften each other up, trying to show each other's vulnerabilities. And then the match will begin tonight at 9 o'clock. And we will see what actually happens, Melissa.