Former President Donald Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris Monday of trying to duck next month’s ABC News presidential debate by demanding the Republican nominee take part without a “muted microphone.”
“The truth is, they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate,” the 45th president said of the scheduled Sept. 10 showdown during an appearance at a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Va. “She’s not a good debater, she’s not a smart person. She doesn’t want to debate.”
Harris campaign senior communications adviser Brian Fallon fired the first shot in the spat Monday by saying the Democratic nominee had “told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast.
“Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,” Fallon charged. “We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”
“The vice president is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time,” he added. “Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller fired back at Fallon, saying the Democratic nominee’s camp wanted to change the rules after Harris, 59, replaced President Biden at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket.
“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the [June 27] CNN debate,” Miller said in a statement. “The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.”
“We agreed to the same rules,” Trump said Monday when asked about the microphone impasse. ” I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have them probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn’t like it the 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 said no changes to the agreed upon rules,” Miller said. “If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate.
“My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump. Regardless, there’s no way Harris is ready to be commander-in-chief.”
Harris has yet to sit for a media interview since tagging in for Biden, 81, as the Democrats’ presidential nominee — and has declined to confirm two other proposed debates with Trump that were to be hosted by Fox News and NBC News.
“Interesting that this is only coming up now that the Harris campaign has started their debate prep. Even their own campaign spokesman said the debate about debates was over,” Miller added. “Clearly they’re seeing something they don’t like. And I’m not sure why the Harris camp is panicking — it’s a given that they’ve already been handed the questions.”
On Sunday, Trump suggested he may drop out of the ABC debate after what he called a “biased” interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on “This Week,” the network’s weekly public affairs program.
“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” the 78-year-old proclaimed on Truth Social.
Karl had pressed Cotton about Trump recently calling Medal of Freedom recipients either “equivalent” to or “much better” than recipients of the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military award for bravery in combat.
“Will panelist Donna Brazil [sic] give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton?” he went on, referencing CNN contributor Donna Brazile’s resignation over leaking questions via email to the Clinton campaign in October 2016.
“Will Kamala’s best friend, who heads up ABC, do likewise. Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he be involved?” Trump also wrote, repeating his new nickname for George Stephanopoulos, the regular host of “This Week.”
On Monday, Trump said he would prefer that one of NBC or CBS host the planned debate with Harris, reiterating his claim that Disney-owned ABC is biased against Republicans.
The 45th president added that he was not preparing to debate Harris in any special way.
“You have to know your subject,” the Republican nominee said, “and I think I know my subject.”
Before Biden dropped out of the race July 21, the president and his advisers requested muted microphones for the first debate to guard against what they called disrespectful behavior by Trump during the 2020 debates.
The then-Democratic challenger and Republican incumbent only squared off twice that election cycle, with a third showdown canceled due to the fallout from Trump testing positive for COVID-19.
