Earlier this week, as we covered at the time, former and potentially future President Donald Trump announced that they had reached an agreement on the upcoming September 10 debate with ABC News. For his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the same rules will be in place as the debate Trump did with President Joe Biden did on June 27 with CNN.
As our sister site of Twitchy covered, ABC News sent a list of rules to the Trump campaign on Tuesday. Those rules include muted microphones for when the other candidate is speaking.
Here are the debate rules that ABC sent to the Trump campaign Tuesday, per an email reviewed by the Post. No audience and muted microphones as first debate was. pic.twitter.com/ukj12rxyks
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 29, 2024
Harris, however, is trying to put out another narrative, as she continues to drag her feet about the debates.
On Saturday morning, she put out a lengthy post complaining about the rules, in a quoted repost of The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey who noted on Friday that the Harris campaign has still not accepted the rules. They want the microphones to be unmuted.
Trump campaign has accepted these rules, per Tuesday email to ABC reviewed by the Post. Kamala Harris's campaign has not yet accepted these rules, as they seek to unmute the microphones for the entire debate. Debate is in less than two weeks. https://t.co/H1fHM0O0s3
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 30, 2024
Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won't allow him to debate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn't have confidence in him, the American people definitely can’t.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 31, 2024
We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in a transparent way—with the… https://t.co/mjyaiUTwAA
While trying to make Trump look bad if he interrupts Harris might have something to do with it, Harris' gaslighting post claims otherwise.
"Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won't allow him to debate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn't have confidence in him, the American people definitely can’t," her post claimed.
It's worth reminding that it was the Biden-Harris campaign who insisted on the rules in place for the June 27 debate, which Trump agreed to. Even after getting what he wanted, the president still performed so poorly that he was forced to withdraw from the race less than a month later.
"We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in a transparent way—with the microphones on the whole time," Harris also claimed.
It's especially laughable that Harris would speak about doing something "in a transparent way," given that she only just recently gave her first interview upon Biden withdrawing from the race and endorsing her as his replacement. Harris couldn't even do a solo interview, as she was joined by her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). It was also taped ahead of time. She's also refused to hold press conferences.
In the few hours it's been up, Harris' post already has approximately 15,000 replies and close to 2,000 quoted reposts, many of them taking issue with her narrative.
Amy Curtis and Doug P put together some of the best replies, with many noting that it sounds like Harris may be trying to get out of the debate, something Democrats previously accused Trump of. It's worth reminding, however, that the issue for the Trump campaign was that the Democrats did not have an official nominee at the time.
Reminds me of a cousin of mine. Playing a board game as kids, every time he was losing, always tried to change the rules and thought I would be stupid enough to agree. https://t.co/28xb1DQco3
— Márta Lisle (@UrUnpaidPundit) August 31, 2024
Let's check the timeline:
— 𝔻𝕠𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖 (@georg3) August 31, 2024
-Trump & Biden agree to debates.
-Biden drops out.
-Trump tries to negotiate new debates w/ you.
-You cried about it.
-You & Trump agree to stick w/ prev. rules.
-Now you want to change rules you already agreed to.
When are you going to stop crying…
These were the debate rules you demanded, until a few days ago.
— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) August 31, 2024
Presumably you know you can’t win a debate on substance and your only hope is an “I’m speaking” hot mic moment.
Meanwhile, you’ve done ONE taped and edited media interview- that for some reason included the stolen…
This sounds like you’re trying to get out of the debate.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) August 31, 2024
You already agreed to rules that now you want changed - namely because you’re stupid and have no idea what you’re talking about.
Won’t work. Voters aren’t as dumb as you think.
Your campaign website still doesn't have a single policy platform listed out.
— Daniel Baldwin (@baldwin_daniel_) August 31, 2024
You have run the least transparent campaign in modern American political history.
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