Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign team is taking a different approach to the rules for the upcoming ABC News debate than Joe Biden: They do not want muted microphones.
But Donald Trump’s campaign team wants the station to mute anyone who is not selected to speak.
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“Trump should keep his commitment to debate Vice President Harris on ABC on September 10, and he should reject his advisers’ attempts to silence him with a muted microphone,” Harris campaign spokesman Brian Fallon wrote on X this morning. “The Vice President is ready to debate Trump live and uncensored. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Politico reported today that Trump’s team is insisting that the ABC News debate be held under the same terms as the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. “No more playing games. We accepted the ABC debate on exactly the same terms as the CNN debate,” Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told Politico. “The Harris camp had already agreed to CNN rules and asked for a seated debate, with notes and opening statements. We said there were no changes to the agreed-upon rules.”
A hot mic throughout the debate will record exchanges between the candidates, including any outbursts from Trump, such as those that occurred in the 2020 and 2016 debates. The Harris team apparently sees such a scenario as potentially advantageous for them, as it would capture Trump’s wacky nature. “To our knowledge, Trump’s advisers prefer the silent mic because they do not believe their candidate can act presidentially for 90 minutes alone,” the team said.
The Biden team, on the other hand, tried to mute the microphones in the face of the first debate of 2020, when Trump interrupted so repeatedly that Biden told him to “shut up.”
Trump is now asking why he should participate in the debate.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday night, he wrote: “I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s (K?) ridiculous and biased interview with Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!) and their so-called panel of Trump haters, and I’m wondering why I should do the debate against Kamala Harris on this network?” The debate will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Trump has a history of criticizing the host network or debate moderators in the run-up to an event, as if to assign blame when something goes wrong. In the run-up to the CNN debate in June, his campaign claimed he was “not being treated fairly.” But after the debate went badly for Biden, Trump praised moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
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