WASHINGTON —
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday agreed to the rules laid out for next week’s debate with former President Donald Trump, though the Democratic candidate says the decision not to keep the two candidates’ microphones open during the event will put her at a disadvantage.
Harris’ campaign agreed to the debate in a letter to ABC News, seemingly ending the row over the open-mic issue that had long threatened the Sept. 10 debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
President Joe Biden’s campaign had made it a condition that only the candidate speaking would have to keep his microphone open in exchange for participating in any debate this year. Some aides say they now regret that decision, saying voters were unable to hear Trump’s outbursts during the June debate. The Democrat’s disastrous performance helped him exit the race.
Once Harris took Biden’s place as the party’s nominee for president, her campaign defended the stance of keeping microphones on throughout the debate, saying previously that it would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
But in a letter seen by The Associated Press, Harris’s advisers wrote that “this format will be a critical disadvantage” for the former attorney general because it “will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct interactions with the vice president.”
“We suspect this is the main reason why his campaign insisted on closed microphones,” his campaign added.
Despite these concerns, Harris’ campaign wrote, “We understand there was a risk that Donald Trump would completely skip the debate, as he has threatened to do in the past, if we did not agree to his preferred format.” So in order not to “jeopardize the debate,” Harris’ campaign wrote, “we agreed to all of ABC’s proposed rules, including closed microphones.”
According to a Harris campaign official, a group of reporters will have access to what the closed-mic candidate might be trying to say during the other presidential hopeful’s appearance. That point was not spelled out in the rules ABC also released Wednesday, which are largely the same as those used in the Trump-Biden debate last June.
The network set parameters ranging from the basic format — 90 minutes and two commercial breaks — to specifications that moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis “will be the only people asking questions,” perhaps hoping to avoid a pitched battle between the candidates.
“Moderators will try to enforce time agreements and ensure a civilized discussion,” the network said.
The Harris campaign official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the planning of the event, said a candidate who repeatedly interrupts another candidate will receive a warning from the moderator, and if there is a prolonged exchange between the candidates, both microphones will be turned on so the audience can understand what is happening.
After Trump won the virtual coin toss on Tuesday, the Republican decided to deliver the closing statement, while Harris chose the podium located to the right of viewers’ screens. There will be no audience, and no written notes, discussion points or questions will be shared in advance with campaign teams or candidates, the network said.
