On Wednesday, less than a week before the September 10 debate with ABC News, Vice President Kamala Harris finally accepted the rules for the big event up against former and potentially future President Donald Trump.
CNN's MJ Lee posted a thread to her X account, citing a "person familiar with debate negotiations." She also reminded that Harris "had been the final hang-up."
Lee also mentioned a statement from the Harris campaign, which continued to lament the supposed disadvantages Harris was at for such rules.
"Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President," her campaign claimed, really laying the gaslighting on thick. "Notwithstanding our concerns, 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. We do not want to jeopardize the debate," the campaign also claimed, despite how that's exactly what they seem to be doing.
In their letter to ABC News, Harris campaign wrote in part:
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) September 4, 2024
"Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President."
More from Harris campaign letter to ABC News:
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) September 4, 2024
"Notwithstanding our concerns, 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. We do not want to jeopardize the debate."
As Katie reminded earlier on Wednesday, Harris appears to have been trying to get out of the debate, especially as she keeps complaining about the rules. She posted her own complaints from her X account over the holiday weekend as well. The rules in place are the same as they were for that CNN debate between Trump and President Joe Biden from June 27.
Biden's team insisted on such rules in place, such as the network and moderators as well as muted microphones, which Trump agreed to. It still wasn't enough, as Biden performed so disastrously he was forced to withdraw from the race less than a month later.
Harris finally agreeing to the debate rules, which she's still complaining about, has been a trending topic over X for Wednesday night. Trump, meanwhile, was participating in a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity.
Not only did the town hall take place live and without notes, but Hannity and Trump also made a joke about when the town hall got to 16 minutes and 30 seconds, the amount of time that Harris spoke during last Thursday's CNN interview that was pretaped, moderated by the particularly biased Dana Bash, and also included Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN).
Hannity and Trump also discussed the upcoming debate with ABC News, with Hannity expressing that he believes it will be Trump's only opportunity to debate Harris. The Fox News host also hoped for his network to be able to do such a debate, though Trump said he agreed to the ABC News debate because Harris "won't do any other network." As he's done in the past, Trump criticized ABC News for how "nasty" and "unfair" the network is, especially George Stephanopoulos.
That being said, Trump still believes the debate won't help Harris very much, even if she was to be given the questions and answers ahead of time.
DONALD TRUMP: ABC News is going to give Kamala Harris the debate questions AND the answers:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 5, 2024
"I'm not sure it's gonna help her that much though." pic.twitter.com/ghWd1xZC5P