Microphone dispute threatens September presidential debate

The Trump campaign is stirring up speculation that the September 10 presidential debate on ABC will not occur. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, raised concerns over a microphone rule dispute with the Harris campaign.

The Trump campaign has called for microphones to be muted except during a candidate's turn to speak, as was the rule during Trump's CNN debate with President Joe Biden, CNN reported.

Trump criticized the "biased" ABC network on Sunday, complaining on his Truth Social platform about "Trump Haters."  

"Why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?" he asked.

Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign has requested unmuted microphones during the entire debate.

"We have 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," Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Democratic nominee, said in a statement.

"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 added. "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."

Trump's campaign said it agreed to the ABC debate with Harris as the nominee with the understanding ABC would use the CNN rules from the Trump-Biden debate.

"Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate," Jason Miller, a Trump campaign senior advisor, 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 said no changes to the agreed upon rules."

"Interesting that this is only coming up now that the Harris campaign has started their debate prep," Miller added. "Even their own campaign spokesman said the debate about debates was over. Clearly they're seeing something they don’t like."