The Trump campaign on Monday opposed the Harris campaign’s sudden attempt to change the September 10 debate rules on ABC News from muted to unmuted microphones.
Harris wants an unmuted mic to save her from word salads, one person familiar with Harris’s negotiations told Politico Playbook. More is here on Harris’s word salads.
“She’s more than happy to have exchanges with him if he tries to interrupt her,” the person said. “And given how shook he seems by her, he’s very prone to having intemperate outbursts and … I think the campaign would want viewers to hear [that].”
The dispute goes back to when President Joe Biden was still in the race. Both candidates agreed on two debates (CNN on June 27 and ABC on September 10), with Biden insisting that microphones must “be muted throughout the debate except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak,” CNN reported on June 15.
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After the Trump and Harris campaign both agreed to keep the September debate in place, the Harris campaign requested on Sunday that ABC News and other networks unmute candidates’ microphones, CNN reported, an idea the Trump campaign opposed in a statement to Playbook.
“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” senior adviser for Trump Jason Miller told Playbook on Sunday night. “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,” he added. “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.”
Trump also cast doubt on debating Harris on Truth Social on Sunday, underscoring the outlets’ leftist bias:
I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?
The Harris campaign’s decision to suddenly change the rules comes after Trump dominated Biden during the first June debate, an event that turned into the catalyst for Democrats removing Biden as the party’s de facto nominee.
“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,” Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications Brian Fallon told Playbook:
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.
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Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.