Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has backed away from a request that microphones be unmuted during a scheduled debate between the Democratic candidate and former President Donald Trump.
“Candidates' microphones will be active only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and will be muted when it is the other candidate's turn to speak,” read the debate rules published by ABC News on Wednesday.
The two campaigns agreed to the Sept. 10 debate in Philadelphia in early August, but Harris' campaign tried at the last minute to change the rules, arguing that muting microphones for parts of the 90-minute debate could give Trump an advantage.
Brian Fallon, Harris' senior communications adviser, argued in a letter to the station before the rules were announced that the muted mic rule would “fundamentally adversely affect” the vice president, according to Politico.
Fallon argued that muted microphones would “serve to protect Donald Trump from direct interaction with the vice president.”
“I suspect this is the main reason his campaign is so insistent on muting the microphones,” he wrote.
Fallon's letter included a verbal agreement about the debate format that wasn't included in ABC News' press release about the debate rules, which appeared to be key in persuading the Harris campaign to back down from its request for a microphone.
Those agreements, according to Politico, include allowing moderators to reprimand candidates who interrupt and ask them to repeat themselves when their microphones are unmuted, as well as giving ABC News the option to leave both microphones open during heated crosstalk.
The report also noted that the press corps accompanying Harris will be given greater access to the debate venue than the reporters who accompanied President Biden to the CNN debate on June 27.
The rest of the agreed-upon rules announced by the network are largely the same as those for the Biden-Trump debate.
The debate will have two commercial breaks. There will be no opening statements. Closing statements will be two minutes long. Candidates will stand behind the podium. No advance notes or props are permitted. Candidates will receive a pen and notepad. Candidates will have two minutes to answer a question, two minutes for a rebuttal, and one additional minute for any follow-up, clarification, or response. Staff will not be allowed to interact with debaters during breaks.
The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and will be without spectators.
The debate will be moderated by ABC's “World News Tonight” hosts David Muir and Lindsay Davis, who will be the only ones asking questions.
After winning a coin toss on Tuesday, Trump decided to deliver the final closing remarks and let Harris choose the podium, and the vice president picked the correct spot for the podium on screen – stage left, according to the network.
The debate will air live at 9pm ET on ABC, the network's streaming platform, Disney+ and Hulu, and will also be simulcast on other networks.
