The campaigns of former President Donald Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris have reached somewhat of an impasse over debate rules ahead of the September 10 debate on ABC, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.
Trump’s team, according to the source, would like for the microphones to be muted while the other is not supposed to be speaking, as was the case during the first debate with President Joe Biden. The Harris campaign is requesting that ABC and other networks seeking to host a potential October debate keep microphones on, according to a senior campaign official, marking a change from the June debate when the then-Biden campaign wanted microphones muted except when it was a candidate’s turn to speak.
“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, said in a statement.
“Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button,” he said.
Trump’s campaign has argued that when they agreed to the ABC debate with Harris at the top of the ticket, they were agreeing to the same guidelines of the previous debate.
“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” senior adviser Jason Miller said in a statement. “The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules. If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate. My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump. Regardless, there’s no way Harris is ready to be Commander in Chief.”
The Harris campaign maintains that the muted mics are the only remaining dispute, and while they wouldn’t mind opening statements, they have not insisted on it.
In a social media post Sunday night, Trump questioned whether or not he should participate in the ABC debate, criticizing the network’s coverage including what he called a “Panel of Trump Haters,” asking, “why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”
