Trump Accepts Rules for Sept. 10 Debate, Which Included Muted Mics

Former President Donald Trump announced that he and Vice President Kamala Harris have “reached an agreement” to participate in a debate on September 10. Trump stated, “the rules will be the same as the last CNN debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone.”

According to a source familiar with the discussions, the debate rules will resemble those used by CNN in its June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. For instance, microphones will be turned off while the other candidate speaks, and there will be no studio audience.

However, a source close to the situation revealed that the Harris team is in talks with ABC behind the scenes, discussing whether the microphones should remain on during the debate. Harris prefers that the microphones stay “on” throughout the debate, CNN reported.

A spokesperson for Harris’s campaign took a jab at Trump in a statement, saying, “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. Sad!”

Trump, in his post on Truth Social, did not mention the issue of muted microphones. He only reiterated that the rules would mirror those from his first debate with Biden in this election cycle.

His announcement followed a series of negotiations between his campaign and Harris’s campaign, which had previously stalled over specific debate rules, particularly concerning the microphone settings.

An insider revealed that Trump’s team insisted on keeping the mics turned off during the debate, except when it was a candidate’s turn to speak, as was done in the June debate.

The CNN debate also did not permit a studio audience. Both candidates stood on the same stage, and the decision on the winner was made by flipping a coin. There were two commercial breaks within the first 90 minutes, during which campaign staff were not allowed to communicate with the candidates.

The debate stage was free of any pre-prepared props or notes, but each candidate was provided with a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water.

Despite the agreement on some aspects, the debate over certain rules appears to be ongoing.

Trump mentioned that Harris had declined a debate with him on Fox News scheduled for September 4, but he would keep the date open in case she “changes her mind.”

He also discussed the possibility of a third debate with NBC News, though he noted that the Harris team had not yet agreed to it.

Harris’s rise to the top of the Democratic ticket has bolstered the party’s polling numbers, but some experts remain cautious about her lead.

“If the polling errors are anywhere close to what they were in 2016 and 2020, then Trump is in the lead right now,” Democrat strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News this week.

These comments come as the RealClearPolitics polling average shows Harris with a narrow 1.5-point lead over Trump nationally, marking a shift from the three-point lead Trump held over Biden just before the president exited the race, according to Fox.

However, Harris’s lead is much slimmer compared to the gaps Trump faced at similar points in 2016 and 2020.

In those years, Trump was trailing Hillary Clinton by 6 points and Joe Biden by 7.1 points at the same stage. Despite these deficits, Trump outperformed his polling numbers in both elections, a fact that Democrats are acutely aware of as they head into the final stretch of the 2024 campaign.