WASHINGTON — ABC News has refused to honor Vice President Kamala Harris' request to fully unmute microphones during her Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald Trump, after days of wrangling that Republicans saw the request as an attempt by Democrats to set a trap for the GOP candidate.
The network's emails, reviewed by The Washington Post, laid out similar rules to those in place for the June 27 debate between President Trump and President Biden on CNN, including no spectators, no pre-written notes or props and muting microphones when candidates are not speaking.
Trump and Harris will be allowed on stage with only a pen, notepad and a bottle of water.
The Republican campaign had argued that the debate, scheduled to be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, should follow the same rules as his June showdown with Biden.
But Harris' team argued on Monday that they wanted both candidates' microphones on throughout the 90-minute face-off.
A Trump campaign source told The Post on Wednesday they were aware the Harris campaign had withdrawn the request but it was unclear exactly when.
“What Ms. Harris is saying is completely false,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told Newsmax on Wednesday.
“That was all agreed and decided last week,” he added. “The Harris campaign is trying to pull off something spectacular to distract from the fact that she wasn't interviewed.”
A spokesman for the vice president's campaign did not immediately comment.
It was widely believed that Harris wanted to speak with her microphone unmuted in order to garner viral attention.
Harris, a former prosecutor, drew sympathetic press in 2020 for portraying then-Vice President Mike Pence as a sexist, blasting him, “I'm talking!”, after sharply criticizing Biden's opposition to federally mandated racially mixed school busing during a 2019 presidential primary debate.
“That little girl was me!” Senator Harris launched a racist attack, infuriating future First Lady Jill Biden, who said the California senator should “fuck off”.
Both comments from the debate were later used in campaign merchandise in support of Harris.
