CV NEWS FEED // Sources on Thursday confirmed that ABC News denied a request from the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to change the rules of the upcoming September 10 debate between her and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Specifically, ABC rejected Harris’ call for the network to leave her and Trump’s microphones unmuted for the entirety of the debate.
The New York Post reported that the debate will take place with “no audience, no pre-written notes or props and muted mics when a candidate is not speaking.”
“Trump and Harris will be standing on stage and will only be allowed to have a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water,” the Post’s report elaborated.
These same rules were in place during the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, who was then the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The Post noted that Trump’s campaign “had insisted” the rules remain in place for his September debate with Harris.
“However, Harris’ team claimed Monday that they wanted both candidates’ mics on for the entire 90-minute forum,” the Post added. This was the standard practice for presidential debates held during earlier election cycles.
In anticipation of the June Trump-Biden debate, analysts had previously predicted that the muting rule would benefit Biden. Instead, Trump was almost universally regarded as the winner after the debate.
Biden’s dismal performance that night began a weeks-long period of speculation that he would no longer be the Democratic candidate – culminating in his decision to exit the race and endorse Harris less than a month later.
“It was widely assumed that Harris wanted the microphones unmuted to deploy an interjectory line to garner viral buzz,” the Post’s report continued:
Harris, a former prosecutor, generated sympathetic coverage for delivering a stern “I’m speaking!” rebuke in 2020 against then-Vice President Mike Pence — depicting him as sexist — after savaging Biden on a presidential primary debate stage in 2019 for opposing federally mandated interracial school busing.
>> LAST WEEK: HARRIS ACCEPTS DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT <<
Harris Senior Advisor Brian Fallon claimed on X (formerly Twitter) Thursday afternoon that “even though Trump said Monday he would be fine with an unmuted mic, his handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris.”
Fallon further alleged that Trump’s “handlers” are “asking ABC to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the mics muted or else they will back out of the debate for a third time.”
“We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate,” he wrote. “We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules.”
A chorus of X users blasted Fallon’s accusations, noting that it was the Harris campaign and not the Trump campaign who wanted to change the debate’s rules on microphones.
Earlier this month, an Axios report listed Fallon as a “top contender” to become Harris’ White House Press Secretary if she wins the November election against Trump.
CatholicVote reported on August 7:
Following the release of Axios’ report, JCN (formerly the Judicial Crisis Network) President Carrie Severino pointed out that Fallon is “the founder of left-wing dark money group Demand Justice.”
“The same Brian Fallon who’s led the calls to pack the Supreme Court and defund the police,” the Catholic lawyer added.
Severino pointed to two of Fallon’s X (then Twitter) posts from 2020 in which the Democratic official publicly advocated for both of these stances.
>> HARRIS MIGHT MAKE FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST PRESS SEC IF SHE WINS <<
Earlier this week, the Post reported that Trump had accused Harris “of trying to duck” the debate “by demanding the Republican nominee take part without a ‘muted microphone.’”
On Monday, Trump had charged that Harris’ camp was “trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate.”
“She’s not a good debater, she’s not a smart person,” he added. “She doesn’t want to debate.”
