US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has accepted the rules set forth for next week’s debate with former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Harris and Trump both agreed to take part in the September 10 debate on ABC News but have sparred over the rules of the debate.
Wednesday’s development, which came by way of a letter from Harris’ campaign to ABC News, seemed to mark a conclusion to the debate over microphone muting.
President Joe Biden’s campaign had made the muting of microphones, except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, a condition of his decision to accept any debates this year. Some aides have said they now regret that decision, saying voters were shielded from hearing Trump’s outbursts during the June debate. Biden’s poor performance in that debate ultimately led to Biden withdrawing from the race.
Once Harris rose in Biden’s stead and became their party’s pick for president, her campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying previously that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
On Wednesday, however, in a letter obtained by AP, Harris’ advisers wrote that she will be “fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President.”
“We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones,” her campaign added.
Despite those concerns, Harris’ campaign wrote, “we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format.”
So as not to “jeopardize the debate,” Harris’ campaign wrote, “we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones.”
On the vice presidential front, Harris’ running mate Tim Walz and Trump’s running mate JD Vance have agreed to participate in an October 1 debate hosted by CBS News.