Trump and Harris campaigns agree to rules for ABC debate
NBCSEP 13 2024
The campaigns for Democratic presidential nominee, VP Kamala Harris, and the Republican nominee, former Pres. Donald Trump, have agreed to the rules for their first in-person debate, which will air on ABC on Sept. 10.
Harris' campaign agreed to allow the microphones to be muted when the other candidate is speaking during the 90-minute debate in Philadelphia. Previously, her campaign had written that it wanted the mics on at all times to give her more opportunity to counter "Trump's constant lines and interruptions in real-time."
During Trump's previous 2024 debate, against Pres. Joe Biden in June, the mics were muted for one participant while the other spoke. Trump's campaign all along wanted the same rule, even though he temporarily backed out in the face of Harris' request for live mics.
Harris obviously doesn't want to debate Trump, so her campaign tried to change the rules in order to get the former president to back out. Well, he called their bluff, even though he shouldn't have to debate her since his original agreement was with Biden. Hopefully ABC's favoritism toward Harris won't impact it conducting this important event.
By agreeing to the rules, the Harris campaign has denied Trump to follow through on his desire to back out of this debate. So instead of pulling out, Trump is predictably claiming the network will be unfair to him — establishing his excuses for losing before he even gets on the stage with Harris, whom he's constantly denigrated since she became her party's nominee.