Trump and Harris agree to ABC News debate rules after arguing over muted mics

Katie Mather

After much back-and-forth, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have finally agreed to the rules for a presidential debate. The debate will be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia at 9 p.m. ET and will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis.

This will be the first time Trump and Harris meet face-to-face.

It hasn't been easy getting to this point. Initially, Trump said he didn’t want to participate in an ABC News-hosted debate, calling the network “by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business,” despite his campaign agreeing to the debate and the network in May. In late August, however, he changed his tune and publicly agreed to the debate.

Another point of contention between the two campaigns has been over the rules. In particular, the Harris camp pushed for the candidates' microphones to be on throughout the 90-minute debate, which could allow more interruptions and back-and-forth jabs. But ultimately, both campaigns agreed to rules that largely mirror those of the June 27 debate between Biden and Trump, including no studio audience and the muting of microphones when a candidate is not answering a question.

ABC News released the rules for the debate last week. They are similar to the CNN debate, and include:

  • No studio audience.

  • Microphones will only be on for the candidate answering a question.

  • Only moderators will ask questions.

  • A coin flip was held to determine podium placement and order of closing statements. Trump won the flip, and elected to give the last closing statement. Harris chose the podium on the right (stage left).

  • There are no opening statements, and closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

  • Each candidate will be allowed two minutes to answer a question, with a two-minute rebuttal, and an minute for a follow-up for clarification.

  • Candidates will stand behind the podium, and no props or pre-written notes will be allowed on stage. Each candidate will be given a pad of paper, a pen, and a bottle of water.

  • Campaign staff may not interact with their candidate during commercial breaks.

The use of live microphones has been arguably the biggest sticking point for the debate. The Harris campaign had previously pushed for both candidate's mics to be live throughout the full broadcast.

However, the Democratic nominee's campaign ultimately relented, saying in a letter to ABC News:

"Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format. We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones."

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, told Politico, “We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate.”

During a campaign stop in Virginia recently, Trump echoed Miller and told reporters “the agreement was that it would be the same” as the CNN debate rules. Trump addressed the muted microphone issue by adding, “It doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on.”

Harris's reluctance to accept the microphone muting stands in contrast to Biden's approach. In May, the Biden campaign said it would only accept an invitation to debate Trump if microphone muting was a rule.

The Harris campaign said on Aug. 15 that both campaigns had agreed to three debates ahead of Election Day — two for Harris against Trump and one for the vice presidential nominees, Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance.

A date for the second presidential debate has not been set yet, but it is expected to be hosted by NBC News. The vice presidential debate will be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

In a Truth Social post from early August, Trump claimed he was dropping out of the ABC News debate and instead proposed a Sept. 4 debate hosted by Fox News. Fox News had originally proposed the idea in July but with a Sept. 17 date.

Trump argued that since the ABC debate was scheduled to be against Biden, who dropped out in late July, it should be “terminated.” He added that since he’s suing ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos for defamation, the hosting would represent a “conflict of interest.”

Less than a week later, Trump told reporters at a press conference that there were now three different presidential debates, including the one on Fox News on Sept. 4.

The Harris campaign responded that Harris would participate in two presidential debates. In a post from Aug. 19, Trump announced that “Harris has just informed us that she will not do the Fox News debate.” Instead, Trump participated in a "tele-town hall" with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Sept. 4.

As of reporting, the Sept. 10 presidential and the Oct. 1 vice presidential debates are the only ones both campaigns have committed to.

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