Kamala Harris campaign and ABC discuss silent microphones for debates

Vice President Harris’ campaign said it is still in talks with ABC about whether to mute the microphones for the September 10 debate, adding that the microphones are the only sticking point regarding the rules.

An email from debate moderator ABC to campaign staff outlining the rules and format, obtained by The Hill, said microphones would be turned on only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when another candidate is speaking.

“The memo sent by ABC is a draft set of rules that both campaigns must sign and signal their agreement to. We did not do that because we believe both candidates have expressed a clear desire for hot mics. It is not clear why Trump’s staff would overrule their director, who should be able to form his own opinion,” Harris spokesman Brian Fallon said on the social platform X.

The Harris team is pushing to keep the microphones live throughout the broadcast, a departure from the rules agreed upon when President Biden was at the forefront of the candidacy.

Fallon repeated the Harris campaign’s argument that Trump’s “advisers do not trust him to debate Vice President Harris live” and are therefore asking for the microphones to be muted, even though Trump has said he would be fine with them being unmuted.

“We have been asked to comply with the wishes of Trump’s advisers on this point to preserve the debate. We believe the position of Trump’s team is weak and we continue to discuss the final rules with ABC,” Fallon said on X.

Trump said on Monday that he did not care if the microphones were muted, but he recently sharply criticized ABC, raising questions about whether he would attend at all.

The Trump team had indicated on Thursday that Harris would go into the debate with a defeat, considering that they wanted to change the debate rules.

“At this point, Team Harris will take a loss if they finally accept the debate because the debate rules are not changing. Or they will take an even bigger loss if they drop out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview went badly,” a key Trump ally told The Hill.

The email with the rules and format also noted that the debate would begin at 9 p.m., include 90 minutes of debate time and two commercial breaks, and that there would be no opening statements but two-minute closing statements.

In addition, candidates stand behind lecterns throughout the debate, candidates are not allowed to ask each other questions, and the campaign team is not allowed to interact with candidates during commercial breaks.