Trump Agrees To Debate Again After Dust-Up Over Hot-or-Not Microphone Rules

President Trump says it “doesn’t matter” to him whether microphones are muted during the next presidential debate, an apparent cave to Vice President Harris’s camp, which is now pushing for hot mics throughout the debate just days after declaring the “debate about debates over.”When Trump and President Biden agreed to do two presidential debates, Mr. Biden’s campaign pushed to have microphones muted when the other candidate was talking, a debate rule that appeared to help Trump.Ms. Harris’s campaign, however, is now pushing to have mics on throughout the debate, with Politico reporting that campaign adviser Brian Fallon thinks it could help Ms. Harris.“Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,” Mr. Fallon said. “We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”Now, Trump appears to be agreeing to debate in either scenario, telling reporters Monday that “I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on,” when asked about the microphone question.“The agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” Mr. Trump said. “Ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine.”Mr. Trump added that “They’re trying to change it. The truth is they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate,” concluding that “She’s not a good debater. She’s not a smart person.”Some Republicans and Trump supporters have suggested on social media that Ms. Harris’s campaign might be fishing for a repeat of the 2020 vice presidential debate with Vice President Pence.In that debate, Mr. Pence attempted to interrupt Ms. Harris during one of her answers, at which point Ms. Harris said “Mr. vice president I’m speaking, I’m speaking,” which instantly became a viral moment.Over the weekend Trump suggested that he might not show up to the September 10 debate on ABC, saying he’d watched the networks Sunday show hosting a “so-called Panel of Trump Haters” adding “why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” and urging followers to “Stay tuned.”In response to Trump’s comments on Monday, Mr. Fallon said in a tweet that he “Always suspected it was something his staff wanted, not him personally.”A spokesman for Trump, Jason Miller, responded to the dust up over debate rules, telling the Associated Press that Trump had “accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate” and that the Harris campaign had pushed for “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.” Ms. Harris’s campaign denies this.

Trump Agrees To Debate Again After Dust-Up Over Hot-or-Not Microphone Rules

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