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REPORT: ABC News Leaves Door Open To Changing Debate Rules After Complaints From Harris Campaign

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4 months ago

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Vice President Kamala Harris and her team have reportedly agreed to a set of rules for the September 10 presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, which is set to be hosted by ABC. The Harris Campaign had for weeks held out on agreeing to debate rules, particularly taking issue with a provision that would mute each candidate’s microphone while the other was speaking.

According to a report from CNN, Harris has agreed to a ruleset that will largely mirror the CNN-hosted debate between Trump and President Biden, which featured a stipulation that muted each candidate’s microphone while the other was answering questions.

However, in a letter to ABC News that was obtained by CNN, the Harris Campaign is still taking issue with the muted microphone rule. “Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President. We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones,” the letter reads.

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ABC News — which is headed up by a decades-long friend of the Harris-Emhoff family — has offered the campaign “assurances” that the format could be altered if necessary.

“ABC News has offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, the network may choose to turn on the mics so that the public can understand what is happening, the moderator would discourage either candidate from interrupting constantly and the moderator would also work to explain to viewers what is being said,” CNN reported, citing familiar with the negotiations.

Pool reporters will also be present in the room in order to “who can report on what they hear both sides saying,” the source added.

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Ultimately, the Harris Campaign wrote that they will be accepting the debate rules due to unfounded claims that Trump wants to pull out of the debate. The former president has for weeks agreed to debates with the vice president while her campaign has hinted at pulling out over the muted microphones rule. Trump also agreed to an additional debate hosted by Fox News, which Harris refused.

“Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format,” the campaign said. “We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accept the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones.”

The Trump Campaign has already agreed to the proposed rules for the September 10 debate.

Pundits and Trump allies have speculated that Harris is looking to land a contrived “I’m speaking” moment, a line she deployed during the vice presidential debate in 2020. Then-candidate Harris would frequently blurt out “I’m speaking” seemingly whenever Pence would speak, at times using the line when she wasn’t even being interrupted.

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