One of the Republican candidates has been coughing throughout the debate. (Getty)
The mystery of who kept coughing and sniffling during Tuesday night’s Republican debate in Las Vegas seems to have been solved.
Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign tells ABC News that he is battling through a nagging cough.
“We all caught something a month ago, and he, like me, keeps a bagging cough for weeks,” Doug Watts, Carson’s communications director told the network. “No, not sick, just working through this cough. Almost gone.”
Carson was briefly shown on TV coughing during a wide shot:
So it’s Carson who keeps coughing! #GOPDebate
IT’S CARSON! Carson is the one who keeps coughing! Thank you, wide shot! You have my vote!! #GOPDebate
The coughing was a major distraction for viewers as it interrupted the candidates and the moderators dozens of times. People quickly turned to Twitter to try and solve the mystery:
Who the hell keeps coughing? #GOPDebate
Can CNN get whoever’s doing all the coughing a Halls drop?
Is it just me or is the only interesting part of the #GOPDebate trying to figure out who keeps coughing?
Which candidate needs that ‘tussin? Always coughing.
#GOPDebate
Others have begged CNN to keep the volume of the coughing down:
Dear @CNN audio person: cut that mic before every cough and I’ll give you a million dollars. #GOPDebate
Dear @CNN, please hire me. I know how to close an audio channel unlike the person you have working the #GOPDebate #Cough
Not sure what #CNN spent on debate production, but shouldn’t have skipped the cough button. #GOPDebate
And the local newspaper began keeping a count of the coughs, but lost track:
Cough #5
Cough #12?
