Former President Donald Trump on Monday accused Vice President Kamala Harris of trying to avoid the next ABC News presidential debate by requiring the Republican candidate to participate without a “silent microphone.”
“The truth is, they’re trying to get out of this because she doesn’t want to debate,” the 45th president said during an appearance at a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, about the Sept. 10 debate. “She’s not a good debater, she’s not a smart person. She doesn’t want to debate.”
Brian Fallon, senior communications adviser for Harris’ campaign, fired the first shot in the dispute on Monday, saying the Democratic candidate had “told ABC and other networks planning to host a possible debate in October that we believe both candidates’ microphones should be on throughout the broadcast.”
“Our understanding is that Trump’s advisers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t believe their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes alone,” Fallon accused. “We suspect that Trump’s team hasn’t even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit that they don’t believe he can stand up to Vice President Harris without the mute button.”
“The vice president is prepared to confront Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time,” he added. “Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign, fired back at Fallon, saying the Democratic presidential candidate’s camp wanted to change the rules after Harris, 59, replaced President Biden at the top of the party’s 2024 ballot slate.
“Enough of the games. We accepted the ABC debate on exactly the same terms as the CNN debate (on June 27),” Miller said in a statement. “The Harris camp had already agreed to CNN rules and asked for a seated debate, with notes and opening statements.”
“We agreed on the same rules,” Trump said Monday when asked about the microphone standoff. “I don’t know, I don’t care, I probably would have preferred it on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as last time. In this case, it was muted. I didn’t like that last time, but it worked out fine. Ask Biden how it worked out, it was fine, and I think it should be the same.”
“We’ve said there will be no changes to the agreed-upon rules,” Miller said. “If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messages her advisers want her to inculcate, that’s her problem. This seems to be a pattern for Harris’ campaign. They’re not allowing Harris to do interviews, they’re not allowing her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat sheet for the debate.”
“My guess is they are looking for a way to avoid a debate with President Trump. Regardless, Harris is in no way ready to be commander in chief.”
Harris has not given a media interview since she endorsed the 81-year-old Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate and has refused to confirm two other scheduled debates with Trump to be hosted by Fox News and NBC News.
“Interesting that this is only now being brought up after the Harris camp has started debate prep. Even her own campaign spokesman said the debate over the debates is over,” Miller added. “Obviously they see something they don’t like. And I’m not sure why the Harris camp is panicking – it’s clear that the questions have already been presented to them.”
On Sunday, Trump hinted that he might drop out of the ABC debate after he said the interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on “This Week,” the network’s weekly public affairs program, was “biased.”
“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s (K?) ridiculous and biased interview with Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!) and their so-called panel of Trump haters, and I’m wondering why I should have the debate against Kamala Harris on this network,” the 78-year-old announced on Truth Social.
Karl had asked Cotton about Trump’s recent description of Medal of Freedom recipients as either “equal” or “far better” than Medal of Honor recipients, the nation’s highest military award for valor in combat.
“Will panelist Donna Brazil (sic) ask the Marxist candidate the questions like she did to fraudulent Hillary Clinton?” he continued, referring to the resignation of CNN contributor Donna Brazile for leaking questions to the Clinton team via email in October 2016.
“Will Kamala’s best friend who runs ABC do the same? Where is Liddle’s George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he join in?” Trump also wrote, repeating his new nickname for George Stephanopoulos, the regular host of “This Week.”
On Monday, Trump said he would prefer the planned debate with Harris to be moderated by NBC or CBS, reiterating his claim that Disney-owned ABC is biased against Republicans.
The 45th president added that he was not preparing for a special debate with Harris.
“You have to know your issue,” said the Republican candidate, “and I think I know my issue.”
Before Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, the president and his advisers called for silent microphones for the first debate to protect themselves from what they saw as Trump’s disrespectful behavior during the 2020 debates.
The then Democratic challenger and the Republican incumbent met only twice in this election cycle; a third showdown was canceled due to the consequences of Trump’s positive Covid-19 test.
