(Headline USA) After previously accusing former President Donald Trump of backing out on a debate against someone he’d never agreed to debate in the first place, the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris sought to change the rules of the planned Sept. 10 debate on ABC to allow Harris to interrupt Trump with help from sympathetic moderators and producers—including a longtime friend and donor of the newly anointed Democrat candidate.
Trump on Sunday night raised the possibility that he might not show up, posting on his Truth Social network that he had watched the network’s Sunday show with a “so-called Panel of Trump Haters” and posited, “why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” and urging followers to “Stay tuned!!”
In the meantime, both sides were locked into the dispute over whether the terms of the agreed-upon debate could be renegotiated.
Complicating the negotiations this year is that debates are being orchestrated on an ad hoc basis by host networks, as opposed to the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, through which debate rules were negotiated privately.
Microphones had been unmuted for both candidates for most of televised presidential debate history—until the the first Biden–Trump contest in 2020 descended into a shouting match.
The second 2020 debate with the microphone muting rules was widely celebrated for being more substantive than the earlier matchup.
President Joe Biden’s campaign team made microphone muting a condition of its decision to accept any debates this year, and some aides now regret the decision, saying voters were shielded from hearing Trump’s outbursts during the debate. That move likely would not have helped the incumbent Democrat’s disastrous performance.
However, after the debate fiasco led Democrat elites to push forward on a long-anticipated Biden coup, his successor now fears Trump could dominate the second debate if it boils down to policy and not panache.
The Harris campaign now wants microphones to be live all the time, focusing less what is actually being discussed and more on how it is being discussed.
“Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,” claimed Harris spokesman Brian Fallon.
Harris “is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time,” Fallon continued. “Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Trump—who also sought a debate on Fox News in the interest of fairness, but which Harris refused to participate in—disputed the Harris team’s false characterization, saying he would prefer open mics, as well.
“I’d rather have it probably on,” Trump said Monday during a stop in the Washington area, when asked if he wanted microphones muted. “I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine,” he added, in terms of the policy during his debate with Biden.
However, he seemed reluctant to allow Harris’s team to begin changing the terms in order to make even more favorable arrangements on top of the sweetheart agreement that Trump made with Biden’s campaign.
“We agreed to the same rules—same rules, same specifications,” Trump noted. “And I think that’s probably what it should be.”
Trump spokesman Jason Miller alleged Harris’s representatives had further sought “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.”
The Harris campaign denied the allegations that she wanted notes or to be seated during the debate.
Miller also took a shot at Harris not sitting for an interview or holding a news conference since Biden ended his reelection and endorsed her, arguing her campaign now wants “to give her a cheat sheet for the debate.”
Asked how he was preparing for the debate, Trump responded, “I’m not. … I think my whole life I’ve been preparing for a debate.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
