The three Fox News debate moderators who will be in charge of asking questions of the top 10 Republican candidates at Thursday's event in Cleveland say they aim to take the participants off their prepared talking points and get to what they really believe,
Politico reports.
Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace have been holding "cram sessions" for the past several weeks trying to refine their questions, Baier told Politico.
"There are no wallflowers in the group," Wallace said of himself and his two colleagues. "The reason all three of us were chosen is that we're three of the toughest, hardest hitting interviewers in the business."
All three come from hard news backgrounds rather than the punditry seen on some of Fox's other programs.
"O'Reilly Factor" host Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday's show said he has been asked why he wasn't chosen as a moderator. The answer is simple, he said: He's an opinion host.
"It's not like they can call the evaders pinheads," O'Reilly said of the moderators. "So it's better for me to be like you to watch what happens in the debate and then analyze after the fact."
One of the biggest challenges the moderators will face, Kelly said, is that they can't interrupt candidates when they stray off point.
"Having said that, we do our best. We try to anticipate the talking points that they've used in the past," she said.
"One advantage we do have in a debate is we can get the candidates to engage with each other," Wallace said. "Sometimes that's a good way to get them off their talking points."
Front-runner Donald Trump, who is known for making bombastic statements, will be treated no different than the other candidates, Baier told Politico.
"Everybody is going to know all the rules going in; there is going to be a sound at the end of their time — it won't be a pleasant sound," he said.
Baier did admit the trio is "thinking about different scenarios. … Our job is to make sure everybody plays by the rules."
And they "have a plan" if Trump ignores the rules, Kelly added, "but we're not going to share it with you."
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