Trump Hints He May Ditch Debate as Rules Negotiations Stall

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·3 min read
169

Is he in or is he out? Donald Trump has once again hinted that he may attempt to duck a debate against Vice President Kamala Harris as the debate over debates rages on between the two campaigns.

Late Sunday night, the former president laid into ABC News in an angry Truth Social post where he wondered why he should even bother showing up to the scheduled Sept. 10 debate against Harris.

“I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network? Will panelist Donna Brazil give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton? Will Kamala’s best friend, who heads up ABC, do likewise. Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he be involved,” Trump wrote.

“They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!! Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN? Stay tuned!!!” he added.

While Trump has publicly waffled over the debates since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, his latest gripe may not be just a case of cold feet, but a complete breakdown in negotiations between the two campaigns.

On Monday, Politico reported that the Harris and Trump campaigns have hit a roadblock over whether the candidates’ microphones will be on while the other is speaking during the Sept. 10 debate.

According to Politico, the Harris campaign is seeking to reverse the mic rule — which was originally negotiated by the Biden campaign when they agreed to two debates with the former president. Meanwhile, Harris has been trying to hold Trump to debate Sept. 10 on ABC by arguing that the date had been previously agreed upon, even though it was initially agreed upon by Biden’s campaign, not her own. Trump committed to the Sept. 10 ABC debate earlier this month.

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior communications adviser, told Politico on Sunday. Fallon added that the Harris campaign feels “that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.”

“We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button,” he said.

While Biden’s debate against Trump was an unmitigated disaster for his campaign that set into motion his exit from the race, Trump’s performance in the encounter was by no means stellar. The president rambled at length on irrelevant topics, ignored moderator questions, and told a litany of lies. The candidates’ mics were muted while their opponent spoke during the debate, per the agreement.

According to Politico, the Harris campaign feels that without a muted mic, the vice president will easily be able to goad Trump into losing his cool before a nationally televised audience.

For their part, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Politico that the campaign had “accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules.”

The Harris campaign never agreed to a no-modification acceptance of the debate rules and laughed off the notion that they had requested a seated debate with notes.

However, while the two campaigns are trading jabs through public statements, the disagreements over something as simple as unmuted mics — a standard in most presidential debates — points to Trump’s deeper anxieties about Harris’ current momentum.

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