Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign failed to convince ABC News, the host of next week’s presidential debate, to turn on the microphones during the 90-minute debate with former President Donald Trump.
Her campaign agreed to mute microphones when a candidate is not speaking, according to a letter she sent to ABC News, ending the campaign. the back and forth over the rules for the debate on September 10.
“Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President. We suspect this is the primary reason his campaign is pushing for muted microphones,” the letter, which was obtained by CBS News, said.
Harris’ campaign also told CBS News that it had been given assurances about how any crosstalk would be handled. Microphones can be turned off if there is significant crosstalk between the candidates. A candidate who repeatedly interrupts his opponent would be warned by the moderator and his comments could be relayed to the audience. And if the microphones don’t pick up the exchanges, a group of reporters in the room would report anything of note.
“Despite our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump risks skipping the debate altogether, as he has previously threatened to do, if we do not agree to his preferred format,” the letter reads. “We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For that reason, we have accepted ABC’s full set of rules, including muting the microphones.”
Biden’s campaign had requested that candidates’ microphones be muted when their opponent was speaking during the match between President Biden and Trump in June, which was hosted by CNN.
Trump’s campaign team opposed changing the rules for the September debate.
“We agreed to the same rules. I don’t know, I don’t care,” Trump said on Aug. 26 while campaigning in Virginia. “I probably would rather have it on, but the agreement was it would be the same as last time. In that case, it was on mute. I didn’t like it last time, but it worked fine.”
In a statement provided to CBS News Tuesday night, Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said that “we are thrilled that Kamala Harris and her Biden campaign team have finally accepted the already agreed-upon rules of the debate that they established in the first place. Americans want to hear both candidates present their competing visions to voters, without the burden of what went before. No notes, no sitting, no copies of questions in advance. See you next Tuesday in Philadelphia.”
