The Commission on Presidential Debates confirmed Donald Trump's microphone had issues. | Getty Debate commission says there were ‘issues’ with Trump's audio

Donald Trump’s microphone during Monday’s presidential debate against Hillary Clinton had audio issues, the Commission on Presidential Debates said Friday, providing a measure of vindication for the Republican nominee.

Trump had complained that his microphone was “defective,” suggesting that the debate may have been rigged by floating a conspiracy theory that his microphone had been tampered with.


“They gave me a defective mic!” he told reporters in the spin room Monday night. “[I] wonder, was that on purpose?”

He echoed that sentiment Tuesday during a phone interview with “Fox and Friends.” “I don’t know if you saw that in the room, but my microphone was terrible. I wonder, was it set up that way on purpose?” he asked.

In the same interview, he also denied having sniffles, instead commenting that “the mic was very bad” and “maybe it was good enough to hear breathing. But no sniffles. No cold.”

Clinton tried to ding Trump for his complaints about the microphone, telling reporters Tuesday, “Anybody who complains about the microphone is not having a good night.”

But the debate commission partially validated Trump’s claim Friday. “Regarding the first debate, there were issues regarding Donald Trump’s audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall,” it said in a statement.

According to a source with knowledge of conversations with the debate commissioners, part of the issue rested with Trump touching his microphone, something candidates had been told not to do because the microphones were "calibrated exactly" to the candidate's voices.

A spokesperson for the Commission on Presidential Debates and one of the commissioners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Anna Palmer contributed to this report.