To mute or not to mute, that is the question surrounding an upcoming presidential debate.
A source told CNN that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign wants the microphones at the Sept. 10 debate with his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris to be muted except when a particular candidate is due to speak.
The debate is set to be aired on ABC. The muted mic rule was the same rule followed when Trump debated President Joe Biden in late June.
The Harris campaign has thrown a monkey wrench into those plans by requesting ABC, as well as other networks who may want to host a debate, keep the mics on, a senior campaign official said.
“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 adviser for communications, said.
“Our understanding is 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.
Trump’s campaign has said that when it agreed to participate in the debate, it was doing so with the understanding the same mic rules would be followed as in the June debate.
“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” Jason Miller, Trump campaign senior adviser, said in a statement.
