Harris Campaign Agrees To Muted Mics In ABC Debate With Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign reluctantly agreed to mute her and former President Donald Trump‘s microphone when they are not speaking during next Tuesday’s debate, a rule Harris’s team had unsuccessfully tried to change last week to gain an advantage.

“We understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously if we do not accede to his preferred format. We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accept the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones,” wrote Brian Fallon, a senior aide to Harris, to ABC News officials on Wednesday, which is broadcasting the debate in Philadelphia.

In his letter, Fallon added that Harris “will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges” with Harris.

While still a candidate, President Joe Biden‘s campaign required that microphones be muted when the candidates were not speaking as a condition for participating in debates with Trump.

However, Harris’s aides wanted the microphones unmuted to provoke Trump into interrupting her, hoping to create a spontaneous moment similar to when she told Vice President Mike Pence, “I’m speaking,” during a 2020 presidential debate.

Trump said last week that it “doesn’t matter” to him whether the microphones are muted.

“I’d rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time,” he said.

However, Trump’s campaign did not agree to alter the rules negotiated by the Biden campaign. 

Jason Miller, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, said in a statement on Wednesday, “We are thrilled that Kamala Harris and her team of Biden leftovers (who have now been layered by Obama advisers) have finally accepted the already agreed upon rules of the debates that they wrote in the first place.”

On Wednesday, after both campaigns agreed to the debate rules, ABC released the full details of the 90-minute debate, which will include two commercial breaks.

Although there will be no opening statements, Trump’s campaign won a coin flip to decide the order of closing statements and chose to go last.

According to ABC’s rules, each candidate will have two minutes to respond to questions, two minutes for rebuttals and an additional minute to respond to the other candidate’s statements.

Pre-written notes will not be allowed, but Harris and Trump can take notes on paper during the debate.

Like the June debate, next week’s debate will also be held without a studio audience. However, the Harris campaign negotiated for a press pool to be present to hear the candidates when their microphones are off, and they proposed that a candidate who “constantly interrupts” might have their remarks relayed to the television audience.

The Harris campaign also said both candidates’ microphones may remain unmuted during cross-talk or discussions between them.

“Beyond the debate rules published today, which were mutually agreed upon by two campaigns on May 15th, we have made no other agreements,” an ABC spokesperson said on Wednesday night. “We look forward to moderating the presidential debate next Tuesday.”