WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday an agreement has been reached to have closed microphones at the Sept. 10 U.S. presidential debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
The Harris campaign did not immediately return a request for confirmation about the ABC-hosted debate.
The candidates campaigns clashed on Monday over the previously agreed-upon debate, with the vice president’s team seeking a return to open microphones while Trump threatened to pull out entirely after suggesting the network was biased.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said the rules for next month’s debate will be the same as they were for the June CNN debate he had with President Joe Biden, whose poor performance led him to drop out of the 2024 race.
“The Debate will be ‘stand up,’ and Candidates cannot bring notes, or ‘cheat sheets.’ We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a ‘fair and equitable’ Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance,” Trump wrote.
The CNN debate did not have a live audience. Trump’s post did not mention that.
Harris’ campaign had said it wanted the broadcaster to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the event, not muted when their opponent was speaking as in the last presidential debate. So-called “hot mics” can help or hurt political candidates, catching offhand comments that sometimes were not meant for the public.
While Trump’s team said it had already agreed to have closed microphones, Trump later told reporters that he preferred to have his microphone kept on.
Trump’s campaign has floated an additional debate on Sept. 4 on Fox News network but the Harris team rejected that.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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