ABC Announces Official Debate Rules, But Gives Kamala Harris 'Assurances' That They Can Be Bent: Report
Democrats cannot seem to find a presidential candidate who can speak in coherent sentences.
Thus, they keep looking to their allies in the establishment media for assistance.
According to CNN, campaign operatives for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have received “assurances” from ABC News that the rules agreed upon by Harris and former President Donald Trump ahead of their Sept. 10 presidential debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will allow for some flexibility on the part of the two ABC moderators.
Specifically, Harris has objected to a rule that requires moderators to mute one candidate’s microphone while the other candidate speaks.
“Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President. We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones,” the Harris campaign said in a letter to ABC, also shared in part with CNN.
With the caveat that moderators would “discourage either candidate from interrupting constantly,” CNN reported that if the candidates did engage in “significant cross talk” then the moderators “may choose to turn on the mics.”
According to Fox News, however, ABC has denied offering separate assurances to the Harris campaign.
“Beyond the debate rules published today, which were mutually agreed upon by two campaigns on May 15, we have made no other agreements. We look forward to moderating the presidential debate next Tuesday,” an ABC spokesperson told Fox.
On Wednesday, ABC formally announced the debate rules.
In sum, they look similar to the rules that governed the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.
For instance, candidates will stand behind podiums without props or written notes. They will have only a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.
When moderators ask questions, the candidates will have two minutes to respond. They will also have two minutes for rebuttals plus an extra minute for “follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.”
Significantly, microphones will remain live only during the time allotted for the candidate to speak.
In other words, the rules not only discourage but should actively prohibit interruptions.
The Harris campaign regards this as a fundamental disadvantage, and for good reason.
After all, Biden’s performance during the June 27 debate demonstrated to a nationwide audience that the president could not speak coherently for two minutes at a time. That demonstration, of course, led to a Democratic Party coup against Biden, followed by Harris’s elevation to presidential nominee.
As CNN noted, the Biden campaign had insisted on the muted microphones.
For his part, Trump probably does not care much about the format. Like his running mate, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, the former president has welcomed all questions and challenges, even in hostile environs.
Furthermore, Trump knows that the more Democrats speak, the less Americans like them — and he’s planning on using that to his advantage for the Sept. 10 showdown.
“You know when I had Biden, you and I had the same discussion, and I let him talk. I’m going to let her talk,” the former president told Sean Hannity of Fox News during a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, per CNN.
The Harris campaign fears that above all else.
In short, Democrat operatives do not want the word salad-prone vice president speaking for too long. They need some kind of fiery exchange in which Trump loses his cool. But that will not happen.
And even if it did happen, imagine the audacity required to ask voters’ support for a presidential candidate who you know cannot speak coherently for two minutes. Democrats have done exactly that.
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