Harris, Trump campaigns continue to spar over mic rules ahead of presidential debate in Philly

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on rules — including whether candidates’ microphones will be muted — for the presidential debate set to take place in Philadelphia on Sept. 10. But Harris’ campaign refuted that assertion, doubling down on its position that the candidates’ microphones should remain on during the entirety of the debate.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said he agreed to terms for the debate at the National Constitution Center that would reflect the guidelines implemented in the June 27 CNN debate with President Joe Biden. During that debate, microphones were muted if a candidate wasn’t actively speaking — which has become the most recent, hotly contested detail between the Harris and Trump campaigns — and there wasn’t a live audience.

Currently, there are no plans to host a live audience at the September debate, Jeffrey Rosen, CEO of the National Constitution Center, told The Philadelphia Inquirer Tuesday. Though, host network ABC could theoretically change that as the debate approaches.

Though Trump did not explicitly mention microphones in his Truth Social post, the Harris campaign on Tuesday said its position on debating with unmuted microphones had not wavered.

“Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates — but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him,” a Harris campaign spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Representatives for ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on any agreements.

The dispute between the two campaigns over the microphone issue became apparent on Monday when a source told CNN that the Trump campaign wanted the mics muted in September, a change in tune from the 2020 presidential debate, when Trump’s campaign advocated for them to be left on.

Trump himself appeared to be indifferent to the mic issue Monday. “We agreed to the same rules. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” the former president told NBC News.

Jason Miller, a senior Trump adviser, said in a statement Monday that the campaign “accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate.”

Harris did not accept the rules of the CNN debate between Trump and Biden because she was not the presidential candidate at the time. Trump also wanted to stray from the CNN rules in his proposed Sept. 4 Fox News debate, which he suggested take place in an arena with a live audience, Politico Playbook reported.

The Harris campaign told ABC and any other networks seeking to hold additional debates in October that both candidates’ microphones should stay live for the duration of the event, as has historically been the case during presidential debates, Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, said in a statement.

“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,” Fallon said.

Harris’ team is taking a different approach to debate mics than the Biden campaign, which wanted them muted except for when a candidate was speaking.