Donald Trump and Kamala Harris argue over rules for muted microphones ahead of ABC debate in Philadelphia

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign have agreed on rules for the presidential debate scheduled to take place in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, including whether the candidates’ microphones will be muted. Harris’ campaign, however, rejected that claim and maintained its position that the candidates’ microphones should remain on throughout the debate.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said he had agreed to terms for the debate at the National Constitution Center that would mirror policies implemented at the CNN debate with President Joe Biden on June 27. During that debate, microphones were muted when a candidate was not actively speaking — which has become the latest hotly disputed detail between the Harris and Trump campaigns — and there was no live audience.

There are currently no plans to broadcast the September debate with a live audience, Jeffrey Rosen, CEO of the National Constitution Center, told the Inquirer on Tuesday. However, ABC could theoretically change that as the debate approaches.

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Although Trump did not explicitly mention microphones in his Truth Social post, the Harris team said Tuesday that its stance on debates with unmuted microphones remained unchanged.

“Both candidates have made it clear publicly that they are willing to keep their microphones unmuted for the entire duration of the debate to allow for a full exchange of content between the candidates – but it appears that Donald Trump is allowing his advisers to overrule him,” a spokesman for Harris’ campaign team wrote in a statement.

ABC representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on any agreements.

The dispute between the two campaigns over the microphone issue became clear on Monday, when a source told CNN that the Trump campaign wanted to mute the microphones in September. This represents a change in attitude from the 2020 presidential debate, when the Trump campaign argued for the microphones to remain on.

Trump himself seemed indifferent to the microphone issue on Monday. “We agreed on the same rules. I don’t know. I don’t care. I probably would have preferred it on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as last time. In this case, it was muted,” the former president told NBC News.

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Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said in a statement Monday that the campaign “accepted the ABC debate under exactly the same conditions as the CNN debate.”

Harris did not accept the rules of the CNN debate between Trump and Biden because she was not the presidential candidate at the time. Trump also wanted to deviate from CNN rules for his planned Fox News debate on Sept. 4. He proposed holding the debate in an arena with a live audience, Politico Playbook reported.

The Harris campaign told ABC and any other networks planning to hold additional debates in October that both candidates’ microphones should remain on for the duration of the event, as has been done for presidential debates in the past, Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior communications adviser, said in a statement.

“The vice president is prepared to confront Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button,” Fallon said.

Harris’ team is taking a different approach to debate microphones than the Biden team, which wanted to mute them except when a candidate is speaking.