Microphone Muting Dispute Threatens Harris-Trump Debate
With just 15 days remaining until the scheduled Sept. 10 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, negotiations between their campaigns have hit a roadblock over the issue of muting the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak, as reported by four sources familiar with the matter.
In June, an agreement was reached between President Joe Biden’s campaign and Trump’s campaign for two debates – one on CNN on June 27 and another on ABC on Sept. 10 – with mutually agreed-upon rules. One of the rules, proposed by Biden’s team and accepted by Trump’s team, was that microphones would be muted throughout the debate except for the candidate speaking, as announced by CNN on June 15.
However, with Biden no longer in the race, Harris’ campaign is pushing for live microphones throughout the ABC debate, following the tradition of past presidential debates.
Brian Fallon, senior adviser for communications in the Harris campaign, stated, “We believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” suggesting that Trump’s team prefers muted microphones because they doubt his ability to maintain a presidential demeanor for the duration of the debate.
Privately, Harris’ team believes that Harris can provoke Trump into making impolitic statements on live mic.
On the other hand, the Trump campaign views this as a bait-and-switch tactic and insists on adhering to the rules agreed upon for the CNN debate, even though those rules were negotiated with the Biden campaign, not the Harris campaign.
Jason Miller, senior adviser for Trump, expressed frustration with the Harris campaign’s requested changes, stating, “Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. If Kamala Harris isn’t prepared, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign.”
Trump has also proposed additional debates with Harris under different rules, including a Fox News-hosted debate with a full arena audience on Sept. 4, as indicated in a post on Truth Social.
The standoff over microphone muting contrasts with the Trump campaign’s previous demand in the 2020 campaign for live microphones during debates with Joe Biden.
As tensions escalate, the debate rules remain a point of contention between the two campaigns, signaling potential challenges ahead of the scheduled debate.
