Trump and Harris fight over rules for Sept. 10 debate
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The Trump and Harris campaigns are at odds over whether the microphones should be hot on Sept. 10.
Why it matters: The only scheduled presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is coming together in the most unusual election season of modern history.
- The campaigns sparred over whether the candidates' microphones should be muted during the Sept. 10 debate when they are not speaking, as was the case during the June debate between President Biden and Trump.
- Harris, who ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket last month after Biden dropped out, believes "both candidates' mics should be live throughout the full broadcast," Brian Fallon, Harris campaign's senior advisor for communications, said in a statement on Monday.
- "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," Fallon said.
The other side: Trump said during a campaign stop in Virginia on Monday that whether the microphones were muted did not matter to him, but that "we agreed to the same rules" as the last debate.
- "Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate," Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement.
Between the lines: When Harris accepted the invitation from ABC News, her campaign indicated that the rules of the debate were still being worked out, per Politico, which first reported on the dispute over the debate rules.
The big picture: The Trump and President Biden campaigns upended traditional debates back in in May by subverting the commission that handles them and creating their own rules.
- Those included no in-person audience and microphones that would be cut off while a candidate is not speaking.
- The Biden campaign hoped that by muting mics, they could avoid the interrupting by Trump that dominated the 2020 presidential debates.
- But the muted microphones may have actually helped Trump by making him look more measured than in previous debates, Axios' Sara Fischer noted.
Catch up quick: Trump originally withdrew from the Sept. 10 debate after Biden suspended his campaign, pushing instead for one hosted by Fox News earlier in the month.
- Trump later accepted the invitation from ABC News to debate Harris on Sept. 10.
What to watch: Trump on Sunday criticized ABC News, the host of next month's debate, and questioned why he should participate.
- "I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?" he wrote on his Truth Social account.
