BY MEG KINNARD
The campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are arguing in advance of their high-stakes Sept. 10 debate over whether microphones should be muted except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak.
While it’s common for campaigns to quibble beforehand over debate mechanics, both Harris and Trump are under pressure to deliver a strong performance next month in Philadelphia. The first debate during this campaign led to President Joe Biden’s departure from the race.
Trump on Sunday night raised the possibility that he might not show up on ABC, posting on his Truth Social network that he had watched the network’s Sunday show with a “so-called Panel of Trump Haters” and posted, “Why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” and urging followers to “Stay tuned!!”
The current dispute centers on the muting of microphones when a candidate isn’t speaking, a condition both Biden and Trump accepted for their June debate hosted by CNN. Both sides are accusing the other of gaming the system to protect their candidate.
The Harris campaign now wants microphones to be live all the time, according to Harris spokesman Brian Fallon, who issued a statement needling Trump.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller retorted that the Republican nominee had “accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate.” He alleged Harris’ representatives sought “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.”
The Harris campaign denied Miller’s claim that she wanted notes or to be seated during the debate.
“I’d rather have it probably on,” Trump said Monday during a stop in the Washington area when asked if he wanted microphones muted. “I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine,” he added, in terms of the policy during his debate with Biden.
“We agreed to the same rules — same rules, same specifications,” Trump noted, for his Sept. 10 debate with Harris. “And I think that’s probably what it should be.”
Asked how he was preparing for the debate, Trump responded, “I’m not. … I think my whole life I’ve been preparing for a debate.”
Complicating the negotiations this year is that debates are being orchestrated on an ad hoc basis by host networks, as opposed to the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, through which debate rules were negotiated privately.
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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Colleen Long in Washington, and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
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