Before the scheduled presidential debate, the candidates continued to argue about format, location, and how it will be conducted. These are just a few signs of how important the debate looms. We needn’t be reminded of how consequential the previous ones were for President Biden. His performance was so troubling that it led to his stepping out of the race and turning it over to Vice President Harris.
Whether microphones should be muted except when the candidate whose turn it is to speak is currently the most pressing issue. Quibbling over such matters is customary from candidates as each seeks an advantage during the debate. Trump once again has raised the possibility that he might not show up if ABC is the venue. On his Truth Social network, he posted Sunday, “Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” and urged his followers to “stay tuned.”
In the final debate between Trump and Biden, the mics were muted and there is little evidence that it either helped or hindered the candidates, although Trump used the open mic to talk over Sen. Hillary Clinton several times during their encounter in 2016.
The nation is poised to see how Harris will deal with Trump, in what has been forecast as a showdown between the “prosecutor and the felon.”
According to reports, the Harris team has requested that the debate have live microphones all the time. “Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,” said Brian Fallon, one of Harris’s campaign spokespeople. He said Harris “is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Jason Miller, Trump’s spokesperson, said Trump had “accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. He alleged that Harris’s representative sought “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements.”
Even before the first round of the debate, questions abound and must be answered.