Trump, Harris Campaigns Agree to Debate Rules
The Facts
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."
The Spin
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 fairly conducting this important event.
By agreeing to the rules, the Harris campaign has denied Trump the excuse he wanted for backing out. 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.
