Trump Campaign Team Push Behind-The-Scenes For No Hot Mics During ABC Presidential Debate

Advisors within former President Donald Trump’s campaign team are stuck over whether to opt for live or muted mics when it’s each candidate’s turn to speak during the upcoming ABC News presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris .

Four sources close to the Trump campaign revealed to Politico Playbook that the disagreement has thrown a wrench into the debate planning as the clash over debate rules threatens to derail the September 10 event.

Speaking to Playbook, the Harris campaign insisted that both candidates’ microphones should remain live throughout the debate, as has been the norm in past presidential debates with the exception of CNN’s debate in June.

Harris’s senior adviser for communications Brian Fallon said: “We have told ABC and other networks… that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast.”

He said: “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. 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.”

Both sides are holding firm with Harris’s camp reportedly hoping to provoke an outburst from Trump, according to one source.

The Trump campaign, however, is pushing for the same rules agreed upon for the CNN debate, when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic candidate. Those rules included muting microphones to prevent interruptions—a stipulation that some within the Trump camp now finds necessary.

Trump advisor Jason Miller told Politico: “Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules.”

He added: “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.”

Pushing back, Fallon gave additional comment: “All three parties (Trump, Harris and ABC) have agreed to standing and no notes, and we never sought otherwise.”

The stance by the Trump campaign contrasts sharply with 2020 demands for live mics and an audience, at the time then-campaign manager Bill Stepien called it “completely unacceptable for anyone to wield such power.”

The revelation comes after Trump threatened to skip the ABC News debate in a post on TruthSocial following a contentious interview between the network’s reporter Jonathan Karl and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) during The Week on Sunday.