The next big political event is the September 10th presidential debate on ABC. In recent days, Donald Trump has been making some noise about how he might pull out of it, because he’s nothing but a senile coward. Behind-the-scenes, both campaigns have been negotiating the debate rules while Trump prevaricates. One of the rules being debated is whether both candidates’ microphones should be left on (“hot”) throughout the debate, rather than muted for one as the other speaks. President Biden wanted the mics muted, likely because Trump knew he could get under Biden’s skin by interrupting him. Kamala Harris is a different ball game. She knows that Trump is more likely to sound like a belligerent, senile Nazi if they’re both given hot mics throughout the debate.

With just 15 days left until the scheduled Sept. 10 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, negotiations between their two campaigns have hit an impasse over whether the candidates’ microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak, according to four people familiar with the issue.

In June, President Joe Biden’s campaign came to an agreement with Trump’s: There would be two debates — CNN’s on June 27 and ABC’s on Sept. 10 — conducted by mutually negotiated rules. One of the Biden team’s demands — which the Trump team agreed to — was that microphones “will be muted throughout the debate except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak,” as CNN announced on June 15. But Biden is no longer running for president. And Harris’ campaign wants the microphones to be hot at all times during the ABC debate — as has historically been the case at presidential debates.

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, tells POLITICO. “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”

Privately, the veep’s team believes that Harris can get Trump to lose his cool and say something impolitic on mic. “She’s more than happy to have exchanges with him if he tries to interrupt her,” one person familiar with the negotiations tells Playbook. “And given how shook he seems by her, he’s very prone to having intemperate outbursts and … I think the campaign would want viewers to hear [that].”

Trump later told reporters Monday that he hoped to move forward with the same rules as the June debate, but “it doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on…But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” Trump told reporters at a stop in Northern Virginia. “I didn’t like it the last time but it worked out fine. I mean, ask Biden how it worked out — it was fine. And I think it should be the same.”

[From Politico]

If nothing else, I love how Kamala Harris and her campaign are perfectly willing to get in Trump’s face about this. They’re not being passive at all, they’re pushing Trump and his people around. My thing is that the debate is going to be a sh-tshow no matter what. Yes, Kamala Harris is a tough prosecutor and she knows how to get in Trump’s face and unnerve him. But this hot-mic issue is just a reminder that Trump is awful and he’ll do and say horrible sh-t in the debate and his cult members will still support him.

This is how the Harris campaign is getting in Trump’s face too. The chicken sounds… lmao.

You scared @realdonaldtrump? 🐔 pic.twitter.com/CMarCdeVJG

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 26, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.