ABC News rejects Kamala Harris’ last-minute bid to change Trump debate rules, will keep muted mics
WASHINGTON — ABC News has declined to adopt Vice President Kamala Harris’ request to have wholly unmuted microphones during her Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald Trump — after days of wrangling over what Republicans viewed as Democratic attempts to lay a trap for the GOP nominee.
A network email reviewed by The Post lays out similar rules as those for Trump’s June 27 CNN debate against President Biden — including 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 Republican campaign had insisted the debate — set to be held at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center — follow the same rules as the June showdown with Biden.
However, Harris’ team claimed Monday that they wanted both candidates’ mics on for the entire 90-minute forum.
A top Trump ally said ABC News had informed both campaigns in writing last week that it would employ the “CNN rules” and both had confirmed that Sept. 10 was a “go.”
“At this point, Team Harris is going to be taking an ‘L’ when they finally accept, as the debate rules aren’t changing, or they’ll take an even bigger ‘L’ if they back out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview goes poorly,” the person said.
The email seen by The Post was sent Tuesday by ABC News Chief Counsel Eric Lieberman. It reiterated the rules and asked the campaigns for their “formal acceptance.”
After The Post reported on the ABC News email Thursday, Harris spokesperson Brian Fallon said the Democrats “have been asked” to accept the Trump request to have the muted mics, but expressed frustration and said the Harris team remains “in discussions with ABC on the final rules.”
“Our latest understanding is 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 and 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,” Fallon wrote on X. “We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate. We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules.”
“The Harris folks are completely full of it,” Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax on Wednesday.
“Everything was agreed to and set last week,” he added. “The Harris people are trying to distract and come up with something shiny to move away from the fact that she’s not doing interviews.”
ABC News has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
It was widely assumed that Harris wanted the microphones unmuted to deploy an interjectory line to garner viral buzz.
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.
“That little girl was me!” Harris emoted in a racially charged attack that prompted a furious future first lady Jill Biden to say the California senator should “go f–k herself.”
Both debate-stage quotes were later used on pro-Harris campaign merchandise.
