Harris and Trump squabble over debate rules as ABC matchup looms
At the weigh-in before a big bout, prizefighters often taunt their opponents in an effort to try to psych them out.
So it goes with the presidential pugilists set to meet next month in the city of Rocky Balboa.
The Harris and Trump campaigns squabbled Monday over the ground rules of their coming ABC News debate in Philadelphia, with each side trying to score political points off the other. And within hours, the Trump campaign found its argument undermined by an unlikely foil: Trump himself.
The tussle began Sunday when former President Donald Trump blasted ABC in a social media post, suggesting that the network’s anchors and executives were biased against him and threatening, not for the first time, to pull out of the event. “I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump wrote.
Then, on Monday, Harris’ campaign went public with an effort to change one of the agreed-upon conditions for the debate: that each candidate’s microphone be muted when it isn’t their 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, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, told Politico.
He added a dig for good measure: “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.”
Jason Miller, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, shot back. “ABC offered the exact same debate rules as CNN, and we accepted — as did the Harris camp,” he wrote, referring to the CNN debate between Trump and President Joe Biden in June, when the muted microphones rule was in effect.
Miller tossed in a gibe of his own: “Now, after the Harris campaign has begun debate prep, they’re clearly concerned about what they’re seeing from Harris’ performance.”
But when Trump was asked about the microphone issue by reporters in Virginia, he seemed to back away from the fierce objections of his team.
He told members of the news media that it “doesn’t matter to me” whether the microphones were muted, adding, “I’d rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.” Trump also said that ABC should be “shut out” of hosting the debate, while adding he was still “thinking about” whether he should participate.
ABC News declined to comment.
When Biden was the Democratic nominee, his team pushed hard for the muted microphones rule, arguing that Trump could not be trusted to stay silent when Biden was speaking.
But Harris was not in charge of the campaign at that point. Her camp’s reversal on the muting rule seems intended to underscore reports that the vice president’s rise in the polls has rattled Trump. (Trump has vociferously denied those reports.) One of Harris’ standout moments in her 2020 vice presidential debate came when Mike Pence, on a live microphone, seemed to interrupt her, prompting a memorable rejoinder from Harris: “I’m speaking.”
Trump has called for his own variations on the debate rules, urging Harris to participate in a debate sponsored by Fox News “with a full arena audience.”
For decades, the televised forums were organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. But this year, the commission was sidelined when Biden and Trump agreed to negotiate directly with television networks, and to hold the events earlier than the commission had scheduled. The candidates agreed to a debate on CNN on June 27, and a debate on ABC News on Sept. 10.
The exact format and ground rules of the ABC debate have been in flux, but both campaigns have broadly agreed to a format similar to that of the CNN debate that took place between Biden and Trump. More than 51 million Americans watched that debate live, by far the biggest audience of any political event this year, a sign of how consequential the televised forums can be in a tight presidential race.
ABC’s debate is scheduled to last 90 minutes and be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis are the moderators.
Harris and Trump have never debated face-to-face. Harris’ team has signaled it is open to another debate in October, but no plans have been set. Several television networks are jockeying for the right to host that debate if it does occur.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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