Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images
Just a few weeks ago, Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris seemed to do the impossible: They agreed on something. Their teams officially came to terms on a September 10 presidential debate, an ABC News–hosted forum that was initially agreed to by President Joe Biden back in May. But the Trump and Harris campaigns are now reportedly at odds over the terms of the debate, particularly surrounding the potential use of a mute button by the moderators.
The first indication of trouble came from Trump, who floated the possibility of skipping the ABC News debate altogether on Truth Social. In a post on Sunday, Trump denounced a morning interview on the network with Senator Tom Cotton as containing a “so-called Panel of Trump Haters,” writing, “I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”
On Monday, Politico reported that the two campaigns had reached a stalemate over whether the candidates’ microphones could be muted. When Trump and Biden consented to this face-off and the ill-fated June debate, their camps had agreed to allow moderators to turn off their mics whenever they weren’t responding in an effort to prevent noisy cross talk. However, Harris, who wasn’t part of those negotiations at the time, is in favor of keeping the microphones live. The vice-president is likely hoping to capitalize on Trump’s tendency to go off-script, especially as he continues to adapt to the last-minute shift in candidates from Biden to Harris.
“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. 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,” Harris campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon said in a statement to the outlet.
But the Trump campaign sees this as a change to the debate parameters that had already been set. In a statement, campaign spokesman Jason Miller wrote that they said “No changes to the agreed upon rules” after the two camps agreed on the September 10 debate. “My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump,” he said.
Trump weighed in on the subject during a campaign stop in Virginia on Monday. The New York Times reports that Trump said he and his team were still considering whether he should take part in the ABC debate. On the microphones situation, he did appear open to having them live. “We agreed to the same rules. I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on,” Trump said. “But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”
There are also still questions about a second potential meeting between the candidates. Earlier this month, Trump urged Harris on social media to accept a Fox News debate in September with a “FULL ARENA AUDIENCE.” That would be a shift from the June debate against Biden, which happened without a live audience — conditions agreed upon by both campaigns.
