Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for president in 2024 wants to change the planned debate on ABC News with former President Donald Trump. They say they weren’t involved in the original talks because Joe Biden was then the candidate.
The Harris team wants mics to not be turned off when the other candidate speaks. Trump and Biden agreed to this rule for two debates.
A spokesman for the Harris campaign, Brian Fallon, told Politico Playbook, “We have told ABC and other networks that are looking to host a possible October discussion that we think both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast. It would be too embarrassing for Trump’s team to say they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without a stop button, so they probably haven’t even told their boss about this idea.”
“Enough with the playing around. We agreed to the ABC debate the same way we agreed to the CNN debate. Once the Harris team agreed to CNN’s rules, they asked for a debate where people could sit down and take notes, along with opening comments. No changes to the agreed upon rules,” Trump’s top aide Jason Miller told Playbook.
Fallon told Trump on X that he “should reject his handlers’ attempts to silence him through a muffled microphone. It’s okay for the VP to fight Trump live and without any rules. Trump needs to come out from behind the mute button.”
Politico and the Harris campaign both say that the Biden campaign set the rules for the September 10 debate. But Harris is trying to have it both ways after saying the “debate about debates is over.” After Trump said there should be three debates with Harris instead of two since she was the new candidate, Harris was very clear that she would only be at two.
“We agreed to the same rules,” Trump said when asked about the microphone on Monday. “It doesn’t bother me; I don’t know. I think I’d rather have it on. Everyone agreed that it would be the same as the last time. That’s why it was quiet. The first time I didn’t like it, but this time it worked out fine.”
.@jake__traylor: "Would you want the microphones muted in the debate whenever you're not speaking?"
Donald Trump: "We agreed to the same rules. I don't know, doesn't matter to me. … The agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted." pic.twitter.com/l7d7Odd7cb
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 26, 2024
Trump said that the Harris team brought up the topic so that she could try to avoid the debate. “She can’t argue well. She’s not smart,” he said.
