Just a week ago, it looked like Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would share a debate stage on September 10. There was just one sticking point the campaigns had to resolve: Would the candidates’ microphones remain on for the entire event, or only when they were answering a question?
In the modern era, presidential debate participants have had their microphones on during events, and Harris’ campaign wanted to keep it that way. But Team Trump insisted otherwise, and there was no great mystery as to why.
As a recent NBC News report explained, “The thinking inside the Harris campaign is that there should be no guardrails and that viewers should see a full, unfettered Trump. Officials there argue that Trump’s handlers don’t trust their own candidate and accuse Trump of saying that for all the talk about Biden exhibiting cognitive decline, it’s Trump who’s struggling to keep up with his arguments. Showing him unleashed only benefits Harris.”
So, with time running out, will Team Harris get its way? Apparently not. NBC News reported:
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will debate each other for the first time next week after their campaigns agreed on Wednesday to ground rules set by host network ABC. The Sept. 10 event in Philadelphia will use the same rules and format as the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.
Under the new rules, Trump and Harris’ microphones will only be accessible to the candidate whose turn it is to speak, the opposite of what Democrats had hoped for.
The Harris campaign explained in a letter to ABC News that the vice president “will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format.”
“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 added. “We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For that reason, we have accepted the full set of rules ABC proposed, including muting the microphones.”
So the former president, who repeatedly went back and forth over whether he would appear at next week’s debate, must be happy to get his way, right? Wrong. As The New York Times reported, the Republican nominee is still whining.
Hours after the Trump and Harris campaigns agreed on the rules for their first presidential debate, former President Donald J. Trump attempted to cast doubt on the fairness of the debate. He downplayed his need to prepare and indicated that he was more concerned about the network that would host the debate than his opponent.
During his latest meeting with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the GOP candidate again claimed that ABC News is “dishonest,” adding that he fears the network will give Harris “the questions up front.”
Of course, this was all rather crazy, but it was not unexpected.
As we discussed a few months ago, Trump is largely defined by a belief in preemptive delegitimization. Fearing potential electoral defeat, the Republican has consistently taken steps to delegitimize the process to explain potential losses. Fearing potential legal setbacks, he has also repeatedly sought to delegitimize the justice system to validate potential adverse outcomes.
For whatever reason, Trump approaches virtually every challenge with the same mindset: “If I fail, it can’t be my fault.”
The Republican Party candidate is approaching debates in a similar manner, even making excuses for potential failure ahead of his recent debate with President Joe Biden.
Given this recent history, it would have been more surprising if Trump… not trying to delegitimize next week’s debate with Harris in advance.
This post is an update to our related previous reporting.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
