Harris campaign has agreed to debate rules, including muted mics

By MJ Lee, CNN

(CNN) — Kamala Harris’ campaign has accepted the terms of next week’s presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, including the fact that the candidates’ microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak, according to a person familiar with the debate negotiations.

However, in a letter to ABC News Wednesday afternoon agreeing to the rules, the Harris campaign again laid out their objections to the muted mics condition, insisting that they believe the vice president will be “disadvantaged” by the format.

“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 from the Harris campaign to the network, shared in part with CNN, said.

ABC News officially announced the rules later Wednesday, noting that both candidates had agreed to the format.

The network, according to the source familiar, has offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, it 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.

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

“Beyond the debate rules published today, which were mutually agreed upon by two campaigns on May 15th, we have made no other agreements,” an ABC News spokesperson told CNN.

The campaign wrote in its letter that it was accepting the terms so as not to risk Trump pulling out of the debate.

“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 former president on Wednesday said he was going to “let her talk” when asked about the upcoming debate with Harris.

“You know when I had Biden, you and I had the same discussion, and I let him talk. I’m going to let her talk,” Trump said to Fox News host Sean Hannity during a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“It depends a lot on ABC, will they be fair or not?” Trump said. “I hope they will be fair.”

Trump, according to ABC News, won a virtual coin flip held earlier in the week to determine podium placement and order of closing statements during the debate. Trump chose to offer the last closing statement, and Harris chose the right podium position on screen.

The Trump campaign had previously accepted the rules governing the September 10 matchup.

The former president addressed the issue of microphones during an event in Virginia last week, saying: “We agreed to the same rules, I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

But in a post on his Truth Social platform the next day, Trump added, “The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden.”

ABC’s rules, first shared with the campaigns last month, largely mirror the format of CNN’s presidential debate in June between Trump and President Joe Biden, during which the candidates’ microphones were muted as their opponent spoke. It was a rule that the Biden campaign had insisted on but something the Harris campaign had sought to change after she became a presidential candidate.

The network’s rules also state that there will be no audience, the candidates will not be permitted to have written notes, no staff can visit them during the two commercial breaks and the candidates cannot ask questions of one another.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Hadas Gold and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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