Campaigns for Trump and Harris dispute over the September debate guidelines.
Due to his claims that ABC News is biased against Republicans, former president Donald Trump hinted on Monday that he might cancel their planned debate with vice president Kamala Harris on September 10.
Speaking at a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, Trump expressed his displeasure with the way Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was handled after watching ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.
“As soon as I saw how hostile that was, I thought, ‘Why am I doing this? Let us use a different network for this. I would like to take part,” Trump said to the press.
When asked if he still intended to take part in the debate, Trump replied, “We are thinking about it.” We are considering it. They also wish to alter the regulations. It was a deal that we adhered to the same guidelines. Now that she is unable to respond to inquiries, they want to alter the rules abruptly. Why does not she act in the same manner as I do at this moment? She is unable to speak. Another dummy cannot serve as president.”
Trump declared that he is open to “tough questions” and a “fair debate.”
He went on, saying ABC “really should be shut out.” “NBC is where I would much rather do it. Better yet, I would do it on CBS. To be honest, I feel that CBS is incredibly unjust; however, the best of the lot—I do it on Fox, and I would even do it on CNN. I felt that CNN handled us fairly the previous time.”
When asked if he wanted the debate’s microphones to be muted, Trump responded, “We agreed to the same rules. I am not sure. I do not find it important. It was agreed that it would remain the same as it was the previous time, but I probably would prefer to have it on. It was muted in that instance.”
The Harris campaign prefers live mics “so the American people can see both candidates for who they are and hear everything that comes out of their mouths,” according to Michael Tyler, director of communications for the campaign. Tyler made this statement on MSNBC on Monday. He added that Trump appeared to favor that outcome as well.
“Considering that Donald Trump continued to express his lack of concern during that same exchange, I believe her stance on this is identical to his. He does not care if the microphones are hot or not, though, to be honest, he would prefer it if they were,” Tyler remarked. “I believe this matter has been settled.”
Overnight, there was a standoff over whether or not the candidates would have live microphones during the negotiations over the debate’s rules, which were set for September 10.
According to Harris’ campaign, ABC was asked to provide both candidates with “hot” microphones during the debate so that they could hear any remarks made by either candidate during their turn to speak.
According to Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, Trump’s advisors would rather have their opponents’ microphones turned off when they speak “because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.”
“In real time, the Vice President is prepared to address Trump’s persistent falsehoods and disruptions,” he continued. “Trump needs to come out from behind the mute button.”
Donald Trump’s politics and the political politicians of Kamala Harris
Former President Donald Trump; Vice President Kamala Harris.AP
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller, however, said that both campaigns had already agreed to the debate rules, which he said mirrored the same ones used during the June CNN debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. That debate used muted microphones, which had been requested by the Biden campaign. Miller also claimed that the Harris campaign requested that candidates be seated during the debate and be allowed to have notes.
“We said no changes to the agreed upon rules,” Miller said. “If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate.”
Fallon, the Harris campaign spokesman, denied that the Harris team asked for a seated debate with notes allowed.
Harris launched her campaign, Trump said at the beginning of August that he wouldn’t participate in the ABC debate next month and proposed that the two debate on Fox News instead. Eventually, Trump said he wanted to face Harris in three separate debates in September. So far, only the ABC debate has been confirmed.
This is the first election cycle that the Commission on Presidential Debates hasn’t sponsored the presidential debates since the nonpartisan organization launched in 1987.
The Republican National Committee in 2022 withdrew from debates hosted by the commission and said it would require Republican presidential candidates to instead pledge to only participate in debates sanctioned by the Republican Party.
The Biden campaign also eschewed the commission-sponsored debates. In May, Biden campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon in a letter took issue with the schedule of the fall debates and also alleged that the commission was “unable or unwilling to enforce the rules in the 2020 debates.”
