Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree to mute microphones for US presidential debate on September 10

Washington:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached to close the microphones at the US presidential debate with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris on September 10.

The Harris team did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the debate moderated by ABC.

On Monday, the prearranged debate saw confrontations between the candidates’ campaign teams, with the vice president’s team calling for a return to open microphones while Trump threatened to withdraw completely after suggesting the network was biased.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said next month’s debate would follow the same rules as the CNN debate in June with President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race due to his poor performance.

“The debate will be standing and candidates will not be allowed to bring notes or cheat sheets. ABC has also assured us that it will be a ‘fair and equitable’ debate and that neither side will be given the questions in advance,” Trump wrote.

There was no live audience at the CNN debate. Trump’s post did not mention that.

Harris’ campaign had said it wanted the network to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the event and not mute them when the opponent is speaking, as it did at the last presidential debate. So-called “hot mics” can help or hurt political candidates because they pick up offhand comments that were sometimes not intended for public consumption.

Although Trump’s team said they had already agreed to turn off the microphones, Trump himself later told reporters that he would prefer his microphone to remain on.

Trump’s campaign team had proposed another debate on Fox News for September 4, but the Harris team rejected it.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)