I disagree. This was discussed here prior to the first debate and I am strongly in the camp that an open mic potentially hurts Trump a lot more than it potentially helps him. The more he makes it clear that he’s a rambling idiot, and possibly drops an outburst that turns off normies, the better for Harris IMO. Seems like his advisors agree.
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I think it’s also far better for Harris than it was for Biden, as she’s much less likely to be thrown off by Trump’s rambling interruptions.
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Yeah I agree with you. Trump’s aggro act from the first 2020 debate did not do him any favors.
That said, I’m not sure what leverage she really has here unless she’s actually just trying to induce him to follow through on dropping out.
They have previously agreed to terms. This is something you ask for in exchange for giving something else up.
The Venn diagram of people who are watching a debate and those who haven’t seen trump speak a million times is two non overlapping circles.
Everyone watching the debate knows exactly how trump speaks.
Yeah. But a “will you just shut up man” from Kamala would go viral
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I’m not sure he can keep himself from asking her if she’s black or what, and I think she’ll have a doozy of a response queued up.
I can’t figure out why trump would want muted mics, this must be his handlers trying to keep him somewhat constrained
were muted mics part of that for the 2nd or only for the first debate?
“People can be two things at once. For example you have been found liable for sexual assault, and you’re a convicted felon”
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I was wondering this also. Haven’t seen anything definitive regarding whether terms had been agreed to. I recall reporting leading up to the first debate that the sides had agreed to additional details, so I guess it’s possible they initially agreed to dates/networks, with additional details to be negotiated later.
The ABC press release announcing the debate seems to have been silent on this. But when Biden was asking for debates, he did bring up the mic thing, as acknowledged in an earlier ABC story on this:
Addressing one of the cited issues with the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Biden campaign said, “There should be firm time limits for answers, and alternate turns to speak – so that the time is evenly divided and we have an exchange of views, not a spectacle of mutual interruption,” and that a candidate’s microphone should only be on when it is their turn to speak.
Since Harris became the candidate and immediately declared that she would be at the debate that was already scheduled, I would take it as her inheriting the debate as-is, including any rules she doesn’t prefer. If she wanted to make this an issue then it should have happened earlier.
That said, it looks like Trump may undermine his advisers’ instincts as he is wont to do.
I think it’s dependent on what the specific term is. In this case having the mics on at all times is more in alignment with some American conception of a “debate”, so the person arguing against it is already having to explain themselves from a position of weakness.
Imagine Trump having to explain that the reason the debate isn’t happening is because Kamala’s mic won’t be muted when it’s his turn to speak. Comes off as totally beta and low energy.
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Alright, so this is a bit of dishonest framing and gamesmanship here by a Harris spokesman, in the clip Trump basically says both things but if anything seems to indicate that the rules from last time should remain.
I think the narrative is already set that it’s a problem for Trump so he’ll have to keep defending it. Keep him defending bullshit, let’s see how he handles playing against his own strategy.
I don’t think there’s much chance he skips the debate. He’s not going to want to concede the air time to Kamala to call him a coward for 2 hrs.
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If either of them wanted a 2 hr timeslot to do a townhall, any network would give it to them in 3 seconds. Trump is going to do the debate for the same reason Biden wanted the debate. He’s losing.
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Trump should skip the debate and then hold a shadow debate on Fox where he responds to her in real time.
“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, said in a statement.
“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. 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,” he said.
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