The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, has accepted the rules set by the organizers for the debate between her and former President Trump next week. However, the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate expressed concern that the decision not to keep the microphones of the two debaters open throughout the debate would be disadvantageous to her.
According to reports from the Associated Press, Harris’ campaign team sent a letter to the organizers of the September 10 presidential debate, ABC News, on Wednesday, marking the end of the debate over microphone muting that had once threatened the cancellation of the debate to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
President Biden’s former campaign team had made microphone muting (except for the candidate speaking) one of the conditions for accepting any debates this year. Yet, some of Biden’s aides now regret this decision, stating that voters did not hear Trump lose his temper in the June debate.
After Harris replaced Biden as the party’s presidential candidate, her campaign team argued for keeping the microphones live throughout the debate to “allow substantive exchange between the candidates.”
Harris’ advisors stated in the letter on Wednesday that muting the microphones during the debate would disadvantage Harris.
However, Harris’ campaign team wrote on Wednesday that despite these concerns, they understood that if they did not agree to the organizers’ rules, Trump might unilaterally cancel the debate as he had previously warned. The campaign team stated that in order to “not jeopardize the debate,” they accepted ABC’s full set of rules, including microphone muting.
ABC has outlined various parameters for the debate, including 90 minutes of debate time, two commercial breaks, and only moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis being qualified to ask questions, perhaps in an effort to prevent unrestricted arguments between the candidates and to “ensure a civilized debate.”
An official from Harris’ campaign team, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Associated Press that if a debater repeatedly interrupts others’ speeches, the moderator will issue a warning. In case of clear audio interference, the organizers may unmute the microphones of both candidates to allow viewers to understand what is happening.