Upon becoming the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris insisted that Donald Trump had already agreed to the September 10 debate to take place on ABC, rules and all, while the Trump campaign insisted that the agreement was with Joe Biden, not Kamala, and insisted on a new slate of debates — including a debate on Fox News.
Trump, knowing that the debates would likely be a huge boon for his campaign, eventually agreed to do the same debate with Kamala as he’d agreed to with Biden. But now, the Harris campaign wants to change the rules.
The Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns traded barbs Monday over debate rules Monday, with the former accusing the latter of playing "games" as Harris' team seeks to make microphones live throughout the event.
After Trump suggested in a Truth Social post that he might skip the ABC debate on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia, spokesman Jason Miller said the Harris campaign was trying to change the set-up of the debate that had already been laid out.
"Enough with the games," Trump spokesperson Jason Miller told Fox News Digital in a statement. "We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate."
Miller also blasted the Harris campaign for trying to back out of the debate with Trump.
"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," he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate. My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump. Regardless, there’s no way Harris is ready to be Commander in Chief."
The Harris campaign also responded to the dispute over the debate rules.
Harris campaign senior advisor, Brian Fallon, said that ABC and other networks should encourage both Trump and Harris to keep their mics on throughout the entirety of the debate.
"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," Fallon 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.The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button."
The Harris campaign is panicking about the upcoming debates and wants Kamala to have a script, among other things. This is an attempt by the campaign to get out of the debates and blame Trump for it.
We've seen these games before, and it never works out well for the Democrats. Biden dodged debates for months, and then "challenged" Trump to two debates, pretending that Trump was too scared to face. Trump then promptly agreed to all the terms, and wiped the floor with Biden in the debate, forcing him to drop out of the race.
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