ABC News has reportedly rejected a request from the Kamala Harris campaign to have microphones unmuted during the entirety of the September 10th debate against former President Donald Trump.
Oliver Darcy confirmed that ABC sent an email on Tuesday evening stating that the microphones for candidates will be muted if they are not asked a direct question by the moderators, anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.
According to a New York Post report published Thursday, Trump and Harris will stand for the duration of the debate. Each will be allowed a water bottle, a pen, and paper. The event will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
One Trump ally told The Post that both campaigns were informed of the debate rules in writing last week — and both agreed — before Harris’ campaign reached out again and called for the mics to be left on for the entirety of the debate. The consensus, according to some reports, was that live mics could be a liability for Trump, given his history of interrupting debate opponents. Others argued that Harris, who spent a fair amount of time interrupting former Vice President Mike Pence during her vice presidential debate, was simply attempting to use the same strategy against Trump.
“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 source told The Post.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Bravo ABC