Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Tuesday that an agreement was reached to turn off the microphones at the US presidential debate on September 10 with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation about the ABC debate.
The candidates’ campaigns clashed Monday over the prearranged debate, with the vice president’s team seeking to return to open mics while Trump threatened to quit altogether after suggesting the network was biased.
In a social media post on TuesdayTrump said the rules for next month’s debate will be the same as those for the CNN debate in June. that he had with President Joe Biden, whose poor performance led him to drop out of the 2024 race.
“The debate will be held standing up and the candidates will not be allowed to bring notes or other ‘aide-mémoires’. “ABC has also assured us that this will be a ‘fair and equal’ debate and that neither side will receive questions in advance,” Trump wrote.
The CNN debate had no live audience. Trump’s post made no mention of it.
Harris’ campaign had said it wanted the broadcaster to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the event, not muted when their opponent was speaking as in the last presidential debate. So-called “hot mics” can help or hurt political candidates by picking up off-the-cuff comments that were sometimes not intended for the public.
Although Trump’s team said it had already agreed to turn off the microphones, Trump later told reporters he preferred to have his microphone on. The Trump campaign proposed an additional debate on Sept. 4 on Fox News, but Harris’ team rejected it.
