As the countdown to the highly anticipated September 10th presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump narrows to just 15 days, the two campaigns find themselves at an impasse. The crux of the disagreement? Whether the candidates’ microphones should be muted when it’s not their turn to speak.
This debate, originally agreed upon by the campaigns of President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, was set to follow specific rules: microphones would be muted except for the candidate whose turn it was to speak. This agreement was solidified in June when both camps agreed to two debates – the first held on June 27th, hosted by CNN, and the second scheduled for September 10th on ABC. At the time, Biden was still in the race, and his team insisted on the mute button as a safeguard against interruptions.
However, the dynamics have shifted since Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee, passing the torch to Harris. Now, Harris’ campaign is advocating for a change in the debate rules. They argue that both candidates’ microphones should remain live throughout the entire debate, a return to the more traditional format. According to Brian Fallon, Harris’ senior adviser for communications, the campaign believes that Trump’s team favors the muted microphone rule because they’re concerned about Trump’s ability to maintain a presidential demeanor for the full 90 minutes without interruption.
Privately, Harris’ team seems confident that allowing both microphones to stay on would give Harris the upper hand. They believe she could provoke Trump into one of his infamous outbursts, which would play to their advantage if broadcast live. A source close to the negotiations shared that Harris is more than ready to engage with Trump directly, even if he tries to interrupt her. The idea, it seems, is to let Trump’s temper work against him in real-time.
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The Trump campaign, however, views this as a bait-and-switch. They argue that the rules should remain as originally agreed upon, even though those agreements were made with Biden’s campaign, not Harris’. Jason Miller, a senior adviser for Trump, has been vocal about this perceived inconsistency, accusing Harris’ team of trying to game the system by changing the rules after the fact. He dismissed the notion that Harris requested a seated debate with notes, labeling it as “100% false,” and emphasized that all parties had agreed to stand with no notes.
Adding another layer to the drama, Trump himself has thrown doubt on whether he will participate in the debate at all. While he initially agreed to the September 10th event, he has since expressed concerns about ABC’s impartiality, hinting that he might skip the debate altogether. His skepticism echoes back to his 2020 campaign when he also opposed the idea of muted microphones and raised alarms over potential bias from debate moderators.
Despite these tensions, both campaigns have continued to publicly prepare for the debate. Harris’ camp insists that the Vice President is ready to take on Trump, muted mics or not. Fallon has taken to social media, suggesting that Trump’s reluctance to face Harris without the benefit of a mute button speaks volumes about his confidence in handling the debate.
As the days tick down to September 10th, it remains unclear whether the debate will proceed under the originally agreed-upon rules or if Harris’ push for live microphones will prevail. What is certain, though, is that the debate stage – if it happens – will be a pivotal moment in the race, with both candidates eager to make their case to the American public in what promises to be a high-stakes, potentially explosive confrontation.
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