Harris, Trump clash over microphone muting debate

Washington — As former President Donald Trump suggested Sunday that he might pull out of the Sept. 10 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the two sides are at odds over whether to allow the ABC News host to cut off candidates' microphones when it's not their turn to speak.

Harris' campaign believes that Trump and Harris' microphones should be on throughout the debate, the vice president's spokesperson confirmed. But Trump said his campaign agreed to the same microphone rules that were in place during the first presidential debate, a matchup between him and President Biden hosted by CNN in June.

Mr Biden dropped out of the presidential race after the debate, his performance raising concerns about his ability to defeat Trump in November and run for a second term. But ahead of the face-off, his campaign set the parameters for the debates and said the candidates’ microphones should only be activated when it was their turn to speak.

Politico Playbook was first to report the impasse between the Trump and Harris campaigns over microphones.

“We have told ABC and other networks that are interested in hosting a potential debate in October that we believe both candidates should have their microphones on for the duration of the debate,” Harris spokesman Brian Fallon confirmed to CBS News. “We understand that Trump’s advisers prefer to have the microphones off because they don’t think their candidate can act like a president for 90 minutes all by himself.”

Fallon said the Harris campaign suspects Trump advisers didn't tell him about the microphone disagreement because “it would be too embarrassing to admit that they don't think he can handle Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”

“The vice president is ready to respond in real time to Trump’s lies and constant interruptions,” he continued. “Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”

On Monday, at a campaign stop in Falls Church, Virginia, Trump told reporters that the two campaigns had agreed to the same rules as in the June debate and that “that's probably what it should be.”

“We agreed to the same rules. I don't know, I don't care,” he said. “I'd probably prefer to have it on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as last time. In this case, it was muted. I didn't like it last time, but it worked out well.”

Her campaign told CBS News that the changes to the debate format came from Harris' campaign.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, also told Playbook that Harris' team had requested a “seated debate.” But the Harris campaign told CBS News on Monday that was “100 percent false.”

The Republican presidential candidate has proposed three debates with Harris: with Fox News on September 4, ABC News on September 10 and NBC News on September 25. But Harris has only agreed to participate in the matchup hosted by ABC and scheduled for September 10.

Yet Trump has repeatedly suggested he might pull out of the ABC debate. In a social media post Sunday, the former president criticized an interview with host Jonathan Karl and a panel on “This Week” and asked, “Why would I debate Kamala Harris on this network?”

But a senior Trump campaign adviser says “of course” Trump still wants to participate in the debate.

The former president said earlier this month that he would debate Harris on Fox News on September 4 and said the ABC debate was “over” since Mr Biden ended his re-election campaign. The former president also addressed a defamation lawsuit he filed against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos and said it created a conflict of interest.

Trump also said a Fox-hosted debate would have a “full audience,” a departure from the terms of the June debate, which was held with just the candidates and moderators in CNN's Atlanta television studio.

Vice presidential candidates Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota are scheduled to debate on Oct. 1, which will air on CBS.

Ed O'Keefe, Olivia Rinaldi and Aaron Navarro contributed to this report.

More information on CBS News

Melissa Quinn

Melissa Quinn is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, the Daily Signal and the Alexandria Times. Melissa covers American politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.

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