Bret Baier Admits to ‘Cold Sweats’ at Thought of Handling Donald Trump in Debate

By Mark Joyella 

Fox News anchor Bret Baier knows it’s going to be great television, but the upcoming Republican debate in Cleveland will also present a challenge: what do you do if Donald Trump won’t follow the rules? “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say that I have woken up in cold sweats wondering how I’m going to deal with a Donald Trump who’s not listening,” Baier tells TIME Magazine.

Baier, set to moderate the August 6 debate with Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace, says the network never considered having more than ten candidates onstage. “We from Day One said that the most people on a stage—that ever had been on a stage—was 10. And that was all that was feasible on one stage. I mean we agonized over how to do it…. If you have more than 10 candidates, I just think it would be unwieldy.”

One part of the debate that’s still being discussed, however–the sound effects. In 2012, Baier says, a doorbell sound irritated a surprising number of viewers with dogs. “I literally got 1,000 emails from dog owners who said they were racing to the door every time we rang it. And we were ringing it because the candidates were not paying attention.”

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Keeping the doorbell and adding Donald Trump could wear out those dogs.

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