Trump confirms ABC News debate with Harris is on

Former President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that his presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC News is still on, after appearing to suggest that the network shows too much “hostility” toward Republicans for him to attend the event.

The Republican nominee said in a Truth Social post Tuesday that the rules of the Sept. 10 debate will remain the same as the ones that he and President Joe Biden agreed to ahead of their June CNN debate, when each candidate’s microphone was muted while their opponent was speaking.

But the Harris campaign rejects the claim that the Sept. 10 debate will have the same rules from June. The issue regarding whether mics will be turned on during the entire debate is still being discussed, a Harris campaign official said.

"Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates — but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad," a Harris campaign official said in a statement to POLITICO.

The rules of the debate have become a point of contention between the two campaigns in recent days, POLITICO reported, over the issue of whether mics should or should not be muted.

The Harris campaign wanted the mics to be hot throughout the ABC debate, which had been the standard in past presidential debates. But Trump’s campaign pushed to keep to the terms he agreed to with Biden in June, despite the former president saying Monday he’d “rather have” microphones on. The CNN debate also had no studio audience, no opening remarks and consisted of two commercial breaks.

ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The Debate will be ‘stand up,’ and Candidates cannot bring notes, or ‘cheat sheets,’” Trump said in the Truth Social post. “We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a ‘fair and equitable’ Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance.”

At a campaign stop in Virginia on Monday, Trump told reporters that he was “still thinking about” participating in the upcoming ABC debate after watching Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on the network on Sunday and not liking how the senator was treated.

"When I looked at the hostility of that, I said, 'Why am I doing it? Let's do it with another network.' I want to do it," Trump told reporters.

Trump has ignited doubt in the past over whether he would participate in a debate with Harris. Earlier this month, the former president said he would only participate in a debate hosted by Fox News on Sept. 4. But several days later, Trump agreed that he would debate Harris on ABC News Sept. 10.

Trump has proposed additional debates with NBC News and Fox News, but the Sept. 10 event is the only agreed-upon date between the two candidates. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is set to debate Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, on Oct. 1 on CBS News.