Campaign

CNN lays out rules ahead of next Democratic debate

by Julia Manchester - 07/09/19 5:11 PM ET

CNN laid out the rules for the next set of Democratic presidential debates in a call with all of the campaigns on Tuesday.

The forums, which will air live on July 30 and 31, will include colored lights to help candidates manage the length of their responses, and any candidate who consistently interrupts will have their talking time reduced.

{mosads}The network also said that anyone on stage who is attacked by name by another candidate will be given 30 seconds to respond. Candidates will be given a minute to respond to questions from the moderators.

In a break from last month’s debate hosted by NBC, CNN will not ask show-of-hand questions.

The candidates made headlines during the first debates when they were asked to raise their hands if they supported health care coverage for undocumented immigrants.

The rules come a day after the network announced it would conduct a live televised drawing to decide in which of two primary debates the 20 Democratic presidential candidates will appear.

In order to qualify, candidates must either average more than 1 percent support in three qualified polls or have 65,000 unique donors to their respective campaigns.