Vice President Harris’s campaign said it is still in discussions with ABC on whether to mute mics for the Sept. 10 debate, adding that the mics are the only sticking point over the rules.
An email from debate host ABC to campaign officials with the rules and format, obtained by The Hill, said microphones would be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when time belongs to another candidate.
“The memo sent by ABC is a draft set of rules that both campaigns need to sign off on and indicate agreement. We have not done so because we think both candidates have expressed a clear desire to have hot mics. Not clear why Trump staff is overruling their principal, who should be capable of making up his own mind,” Harris spokesperson Brian Fallon said on social platform X.
The Harris campaign has pushed for live mics throughout the broadcast, which is a shift from the rules previously agreed upon when President Biden was at the top of the ticket.
Fallon reiterated the Harris campaign’s argument that Trump’s “handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris” so they are asking for the muted mics, despite Trump saying he would be fine if they were unmuted.
“We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate. We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules,” Fallon said on X.
Trump said Monday it didn’t matter to him whether the microphones were muted but has recently bashed ABC, raising questions about whether he would participate.
The Trump team suggested on Thursday that Harris would be going into the debate with a loss considering they wanted to change the debate rules.
“At this point Team Harris is going to be taking an ‘L’ when they finally accept, as the debate rules aren’t changing, or they’ll take an even bigger ‘L’ if they back out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview goes poorly,” a top Trump ally told The Hill.
The email with the rules and format also outlined that the debate would be at 9 p.m., including 90 minutes of debating time with two commercial breaks, and have no opening statements but two-minute closing statements.
Additionally, the candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate, candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other, and campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.