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Kamala Harris’ campaign has a new demand for her upcoming debate with Donald Trump: That each candidate’s microphone stays unmuted the whole time.
“The VP is ready to debate Trump live and uncensored,” Harris advisor Brian Fallon wrote on X. “Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Fallon suggested that Trump’s campaign would not agree to that condition, writing that Trump “should reject his handlers’ attempts to muzzle him via a muted microphone.”
A Trump spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on whether that’s true. But more broadly, Trump’s campaign is complaining that the Harris campaign is making new demands about the upcoming debate, set to be held on September 10 in Philadelphia.
“Now that they’ve started their debate prep with Harris, they’re wanting to change the rules,” Trump advisor Jason Miller wrote on X. “What is it they’re seeing that has them worried?”
Miller also told POLITICO that Harris’ campaign “asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.” Fallon told the outlet that the campaign did not push for any notes or for the candidates to be seated.
The back-and-forth over microphones comes after Trump suggested on Truth Social on Sunday night that he may skip the debate entirely, claiming that ABC wouldn’t be fair to him: “Why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”
The Harris campaign’s unmuted microphone demand is a significant break from the Biden campaign, which demanded ahead of the disastrous June 27 debate that each candidate’s microphone remain muted while the other is speaking.
The switch likely reflects a degree of confidence in Harris’ candidacy that wasn’t necessarily there with Biden — that while the 80-year-old president may have been tripped up by potential Trump interruptions, the younger vice president will be able to make such outbursts work to her advantage.
“She’s more than happy to have exchanges with him if he tries to interrupt her,” one person familiar with the negotiations told POLITICO, adding that Trump is “very prone to having intemperate outbursts” and that the “campaign would want viewers to hear.”
