On Thursday, Brian Fallon — a communications official with the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris — provided a public update via social media about the status of discussions over how to handle a debate between Harris and Donald Trump planned for next month with ABC.
“Update: 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 said, adding that the Democratic nominee’s team was “asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate.” But they’re not enthusiastic about that possibility.
“We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules,” Fallon added.
During a debate in June between Trump and President Joe Biden when the latter was still expected as Democrats’ nominee, the mics were muted when it was not the given candidate’s turn to speak.
All the way back in the 2020 election cycle, one of the general election debates between Trump and Biden (when Trump was the incumbent) went infamously off the rails with incessant interruptions from Trump that sometimes made the discussion become nearly outright unintelligible. This time, notably, Harris actually has an extensive professional past in prosecution, previously serving as the elected attorney general of the state of California.
Harris has been contrasting her background with Trump’s own past, including his litany of serious courtroom troubles. Trump remains, at this point, a convicted felon following the jury conviction on all counts earlier this year in his felony criminal case brought by local Manhattan prosecutors.
