Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to the rules of her upcoming televised debate with rival Donald Trump, including allowing her microphone to be muted when it is the other’s turn to speak.
Ms Harris’s campaign previously fought against the muted microphone rule, which was adopted by her predecessor in the presidential race, Joe Biden. Analysts say Ms Harris’s team believes the rule would benefit Mr Trump.
But on Wednesday, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to the debate rules on the basis laid out by ABC News.
The debate, scheduled for September 10 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be the first face-off between the two presidential candidates.
The rules of the debate were similar to the June debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, hosted by CNN, in which Mr. Biden’s poor performance led to widespread calls for him to drop out of the Democratic nomination.
Political watchers at the time suggested that the microphone-muting rule in place during that debate might have worked in Trump’s favor, as it limited his ability to interrupt Biden and speak out of turn, and allowed him to deliver a more composed performance.
In a letter to ABC on Wednesday, the Harris campaign said it still believes it will be “fundamentally disadvantaged” by the debate format, saying it will “help protect Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the vice president.”
But the campaign also added that it accepted the rules so the debate could continue.
“We understand that Donald Trump would run the risk of skipping the debate altogether, as he has previously threatened to do, if we did not approve the format he desires,” the report said.
“For this reason, we have accepted the entire policy proposed by ABC, including muting the microphone.”
The Trump campaign said in a statement that it was “pleased that Kamala Harris and the rest of her team on the Biden campaign” had “accepted the agreed upon rules.”
However, Trump himself has previously hinted that he would accept an unmuted microphone.
He attacked ABC in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, questioning the network’s polling and saying it was “the worst network on television in terms of fairness.”
He said he only agreed to participate in the debate “because (Ms. Harris’s campaign) would not participate in any other network.”
The debate will last 90 minutes and will be held at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The debate will be moderated by ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Neither candidate made an opening statement, and they were not allowed to communicate with their campaign staff during commercial breaks.
Like the CNN debate, there will be no live audience inside the venue.
