Special Poll
The campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are currently at odds over whether microphones should remain muted except for the active speaker during their important September 10 debate.
While it is usual for campaigns to discuss the logistics of debates beforehand, both Harris and Trump are under significant pressure to deliver impressive performances in Philadelphia next month. The initial debate in this election cycle led to President Joe Biden withdrawing from the race.
On Sunday evening, Trump hinted that he might not participate in the ABC debate. He posted on his Truth Social account, criticizing the network’s Sunday show for featuring a “so-called Panel of Trump Haters.” He questioned, “Why would I debate Kamala Harris on that network?” and encouraged his followers to “Stay tuned!!”
The primary issue revolves around whether microphones should be muted when a candidate is not speaking. This was a condition both Biden and Trump agreed to for their June debate hosted by CNN. Now, each campaign is accusing the other of trying to manipulate the rules to benefit their own candidate.
Biden’s campaign team had initially required microphone muting as a condition for agreeing to participate in any debates this year. However, some members of his team now regret this decision, believing it prevented voters from hearing Trump’s controversial remarks during the debate. This strategy likely contributed to Biden’s disappointing performance.
In contrast, the Harris campaign is now advocating for microphones to remain live throughout the debate. Brian Fallon, Harris’s spokesperson, criticized Trump by stating, “Trump’s team prefers muted microphones because they doubt their candidate can handle a 90-minute debate on his own.” He added that Harris is prepared to address Trump’s frequent falsehoods and interruptions in real time, asserting that Trump should “stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Trump’s spokesman, Jason Miller, responded by saying that the Republican nominee had agreed to the ABC debate under the same terms as the CNN debate. He accused Harris’s team of wanting “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.”
Miller also took aim at Harris for not participating in interviews or press conferences since Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed her, suggesting that her campaign now seeks “to give her a cheat sheet for the debate.”
The Harris campaign denied these allegations, stating that they do not require notes or a seated format for the debate.
When asked on Monday during an appearance in the Washington area whether he prefers muted microphones, Trump replied, “I’d rather have it probably on. I didn’t like it last time, but it worked out fine,” referring to the microphone policy during his debate with Biden.
He emphasized, “We agreed to the same rules — same rules, same specifications,” for his upcoming debate with Harris on September 10. “And I think that’s probably what it should be.”
When questioned about his preparations for the debate, Trump stated, “I’m not. … I think my whole life I’ve been preparing for a debate.”
This year’s debate arrangements are further complicated by the fact that host networks are organizing debates on an ad hoc basis, rather than through the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which typically negotiates debate rules privately.
Historically, microphones have been unmuted for both candidates during most televised presidential debates. After the first Biden-Trump debate in October 2020 descended into a shouting match, the debate commission announced that microphones would be muted when candidates are not speaking for future debates. The second 2020 debate, which maintained the microphone muting rules, was praised for being more substantive than the earlier confrontation.