[This is a duplicate of my reply to a later post on the same topic. I feel for you, so I hope this info helps.]
My coding skills are very basic, but I accomplished this by editing the misc/comments-error.php file.
I changed:
<p class="comments-closed pings-open">
<?php
/* Translators: The two %s are placeholders for HTML. The order can't be changed. */
printf( __( 'Comments are closed, but %strackbacks%s and pingbacks are open.', 'stargazer' ), '<a href="' . esc_url( get_trackback_url() ) . '">', '</a>' );
?>
</p><!-- .comments-closed .pings-open -->
to:
<p class="comments-closed pings-open">
<?php
/* Translators: The two %s are placeholders for HTML. The order can't be changed. */
printf( __( '', '' ), '<a href="' . esc_url( get_trackback_url() ) . '">', '</a>' );
?>
</p><!-- .comments-closed .pings-open -->
I added my edited comments-error.php file to my child theme, within a ‘misc’ folder.
I’m sure just deleting things is leaving the code a bit sloppy. If there’s a better way, I’m all ears.
