Trump, Harris campaigns clash over muting mics during scheduled ABC debate

The Trump and Harris campaigns are in disagreement about whether microphones should be muted during a scheduled upcoming debate, prompting former President Trump to raise questions about his participation.

The Trump campaign has argued each candidate should have their microphone muted when it’s not their turn to speak, similar to the rules used during Trump’s June debate on CNN with President Biden. The Harris campaign, however, has noted it was not the party that agreed to those rules and has pushed for microphones to be left open throughout the event.

“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,” Harris spokesperson Brian Fallon said in a statement. “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. 

“We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button,” he added. “The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”

Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller said in a statement that the former president’s team had rejected any changes to the rules agreed upon for the CNN debate.

“This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign,” Miller said in a statement. “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. My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump.”

Questioning the vice president’s motives, Miller pointed to an Aug. 15 statement in which the Harris campaign asserted the “debate about debates” was over.

“Clearly they’re seeing something they don’t like,” Miller said.

Miller claimed the Harris campaign had asked for a seated debate with notes and opening statements, something the Harris campaign has denied. Trump himself made similar claims about Biden’s request for a seated debate with CNN.

Politico first reported on the disagreement over the microphone muting.

Trump was asked during a stop at a restaurant in Virginia about the latest hang-up over microphones. The former president was adamant that the two sides agreed to the same rules that covered his June debate with Biden before conceding he would be fine if the microphones were left unmuted.

“We agreed to the same rules. I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on,” Trump said. “The agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted.”

Some Biden allies have suggested that muting the microphones during the June debate aided Trump, as viewers were unable to hear the kinds of interruptions that have hindered his past debate performances.

The issue over the microphones has prompted fresh discussion over whether the Sept. 10 debate will take place, after the two sides had appeared to come to terms on a debate.

Trump had agreed to an ABC News-hosted debate with Biden for Sept. 10. After Biden was replaced atop the Democratic ticket by Harris, Trump initially withdrew from the ABC debate and cast doubt on whether he would debate Harris at all.

The two sides eventually agreed to hold the debate with ABC News. While Trump had pushed for additional debates on Fox News and NBC News in September, the Harris campaign said it would only agree to the ABC News event before discussing a potential second presidential debate.

But Trump late Sunday raged over the network’s broadcast of “This Week,” which included critical panelists and an interview between host Jonathan Karl and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that Trump deemed “biased.”

“Why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump asked on Truth Social.

The debate is scheduled to be held in Philadelphia, and will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis, the network said.

Updated at 11:23 a.m. EDT