Former President Donald Trump said he doesn’t want the microphones muted during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris but said her campaign shouldn’t be allowed to change the rules.
Harris’s campaign has pushed to change the rules for the ABC News debate between her and Trump on Sept. 10 to have the microphones unmuted for the entire debate. During Trump’s debate with President Joe Biden in June, the microphones were turned off when the candidate wasn’t speaking.
The muted microphones were a request of the Biden-Harris campaign for the June debate, and Harris’s team criticized Trump for trying to change the parameters in future debates with Harris. However, her camp tried to change the rules themselves days before the pair are set to face off.
Trump responded to the debate over the debate at a campaign stop in Falls Church, Virginia, on Monday morning, saying that while he was not a fan of the muted microphone rule, it should remain the same as the previous debate.
“We agree to the same rules. I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have [the microphones] probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” Trump said.
“I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine. Ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine, and I think it should be the same,” he added.
The former president said he suspects the Harris campaign’s attempt to change the rules is a way for the vice president to get out of the debate.
“We agreed to the same rules — same rules and same specifications. And I think that’s probably what it should be, but they’re trying to change it. The truth is, they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate. She’s not a good debater. She’s not a smart person. She doesn’t want to debate,” Trump said.
Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, responded to Trump’s statement by saying in an X post that Trump “resolved” the matter with the statement and that “everything is now set for Sept 10th.”
Trump said unmuting the mics “doesn’t matter to me.” Always suspected it was something his staff wanted, not him personally.
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 26, 2024
With this resolved, everything is now set for Sept 10th. https://t.co/l98QiTD9lh
“Trump said unmuting the mics ‘doesn’t matter to me.’ Always suspected it was something his staff wanted, not him personally. With this resolved, everything is now set for Sept 10th,” Fallon said on X.
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The response came despite the former president saying in the clip that he believes the rules should not change from the muted microphones of the June debate.
The ABC News debate between Trump and Harris is scheduled to take place in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, with both campaigns leaving open the possibility of a debate in October. A vice presidential debate between Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), is set to be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.