The campaigns of former President Donald Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris have reached somewhat of an impasse over debate rules ahead of the September 10 debate on ABC, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.
Trump’s team, according to the source, would like for the microphones to be muted while the other is not supposed to be speaking, as was the case during the first debate with President Joe Biden. The Harris campaign is requesting that ABC and other networks seeking to host a potential October debate keep microphones on, according to a senior campaign official, marking a change from the June debate when the then-Biden campaign wanted microphones muted except when it was a candidate’s turn to speak.
“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,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign has argued that when they agreed to the ABC debate with Harris at the top of the ticket, they were agreeing to the same guidelines of the previous debate.
The Harris campaign maintains that the muted mics are the only remaining dispute, and while they wouldn’t mind opening statements, they have not insisted on it.
In a social media post Sunday night, Trump questioned whether or not he should participate in the ABC debate, criticizing the network’s coverage including what he called a “Panel of Trump Haters,” asking, “why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/John-McCain-Meghan-McCain-Donald-Trump-Kamala-Harris-112124-a94d238beb1f4019a5b06f765a1917fe.jpg "Meghan McCain wrote in her dead dad, John McCain, in presidential election")
