ABC News has rejected Kamala Harris’ request to keep microphones unmuted throughout the September 10 debate against Donald Trump.
The report comes just days after the campaigns for both presidential nominees clashed over the rules. In an email sent out this week, the network laid out a list of rules similar to Trump’s CNN debate against Joe Biden, including muted mics when a candidate is not speaking.
The email sent out by ABC News Chief Counsel Eric Lieberman stated that there would be “no audience and no pre-written notes or props.” The outlet adds that both Trump and Harris will only be allowed to have a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water while standing on stage.
The Trump campaign had insisted on rules similar to the June 27 debate, while the Harris campaign proposed on Monday that both candidates’ mics should be unmuted for an entire 90 minutes.
In response to the rules laid out by ABC News, Harris campaign’s spokesperson Brian Fallon wrote on X,
“Our latest understanding is that even though Trump said Monday he would be fine with an unmuted mic, his handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris and are asking ABC to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the mics muted or else they will back out of the debate for a third time.”
“We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate. We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules,” Fallon added.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller blasted the Harris campaign, saying they are “completely full of it.”
“Everything was agreed to and set last week. The Harris people are trying to distract and come up with something shiny to move away from the fact that she’s not doing interviews,” Miller added in a statement to Newsmax.
