A newly leaked email from inside ABC News has revealed the rules for the upcoming September 10th presidential debate while calling into question recent framing from the Harris campaign.
On Monday, one of Harris’ handlers took to social media to claim that Donald Trump was threatening to pull out of the debate because he was “afraid” to have unmuted mics. That followed a Politico report that claimed both campaigns had hit an impasse over the rules.
SEE: Kamala Harris’ Fear is Palpable As She Desperately Tries to Change the Rules of the ABC News Debate
To anyone who had been following this saga, what was happening was clear. Early on, the Harris campaign had repeatedly accused Trump of cowardice and “backing out” of the debate because he suggested that new rules would need to be negotiated. Given Joe Biden was no longer the nominee, that seemed reasonable at the time. In response, Harris put out a statement proclaiming that “the debate about debates is over,” challenging Trump to show up and stick to the original terms. He agreed.
That’s what made the last-minute bait-and-switch so brazen and nonsensical. It was members of the Harris campaign that had repeatedly refused to negotiate new terms only for them to demand new terms at the eleventh hour. The Trump campaign responded by pointing out that the rules were negotiated to be the same as the CNN debate that ultimately led to the end of Biden’s campaign.
With that backstory in mind, the leaked email mentioned above is shedding light on the situation. According to The New York Post, which viewed a copy, the rules were always set to be the same as the CNN debate, including having muted mics and no audience.
ABC News has declined to adopt Vice President Kamala Harris’ request to have wholly unmuted microphones during her Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald Trump — after days of wrangling over what Republicans viewed as Democratic attempts to lay a trap for the GOP nominee.
A network email reviewed by The Post lays out similar rules as those for Trump’s June 27 CNN debate against President Biden — including no audience, no pre-written notes or props and muted mics when a candidate is not speaking.
Trump and Harris will be standing on stage and will only be allowed to have a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.
In other words, the idea that the rules were still up in the air, which was the Harris campaign’s contention, appears to be false. The email shows that ABC News never had any intention of changing the original terms, and all the bluster from Harris’ handlers has been an attempt to muddy the waters and gain concessions without having any leverage.
A top Trump ally said ABC News had informed both campaigns in writing last week that it would employ the “CNN rules” and both had confirmed that Sept. 10 was a “go.”
“At this point, Team Harris is going to be taking an ‘L’ when they finally accept, as the debate rules aren’t changing, or they’ll take an even bigger ‘L’ if they back out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview goes poorly,” the person said.
The email seen by The Post, sent Tuesday by ABC News Chief Counsel Eric Lieberman, reiterated the rules and asked the campaigns for their “formal acceptance.”
Did the Harris campaign formally accept? They may not have, but that’s beside the point. If the vice president chooses not to show up because she chose not to accept the rules as presented and previously negotiated, that’s on her. That would not be Donald Trump “backing out a third time,” as her lackeys are currently claiming.
Update: Our latest understanding is that even though Trump said Monday he would be fine with an unmuted mic, his handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris and are asking ABC to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the mics muted or else they will back out of the debate for…
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 29, 2024
That entire post is just shameless nonsense. While Trump did say he didn’t really care about the status of the mics, he also said in the same exchange with the press that the rules were already agreed to and shouldn’t be changed. Why is the Harris campaign rushing to throw up roadblocks less than two weeks out? I suspect they want a reason to not show up given how terrified they are of letting Kamala Harris off-script. There’s a reason she has done zero interviews to this point and her first sit-down will be with Tim Walz by her side to provide cover.
In the end, Trump should stick to his guns. He agreed to the rules as presented by ABC News. All he has to do is show up. If Harris doesn’t because of the state of the microphones, she will look incredibly weak.
