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ABC rejects Harris efforts to change debate rules and her team is fuming

August 30, 2024 | | Print Article

Brian Fallon, a senior adviser to the Kamala Harris campaign, let it be known Thursday they are not happy with ABC rejecting their desire to change the agreed-upon rules for the Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald Trump.

Furthermore, Fallon said they have not signed off on the rules for the presidential debate, which could prevent the event from going off — the established rules were similar to those used during the June 27 CNN debate between President Biden and Trump: no audience, no pre-written notes or props, and muted mics when a candidate is not speaking.

“Our latest understanding is that even though Trump said Monday he would be fine with an unmuted mic, his handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris and are asking ABC to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the mics muted or else they will back out of the debate for a third time,” Fallon posted on X. “We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate. We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules.”

In a follow-up, Fallon let it be known that the campaign has yet to sign off on the debate rules while trying to goad Trump to acquiesce to their terms — he would later state that “this is the only remaining sticking point between the two sides.”

“The memo sent by ABC is a draft set of rules that both campaigns need to sign off on and indicate agreement. We have not done so because we think both candidates have expressed a clear desire to have hot mics,” he posted. “Not clear why Trump staff is overruling their principal, who should be capable of making up his own mind.”

To get a feel for the character on display by the Harris campaign, Fallon linked to a previous tweet of his above featuring a partial quote claiming that Trump agreed to go with open mics.

“Trump said unmuting the mics ‘doesn’t matter to me.’ Always suspected it was something his staff wanted, not him personally. With this resolved, everything is now set for Sept 10th.” Fallon dishonestly tweeted.

What Trump actually said can be seen here: “The deal was that we keep the same rules, now all of a sudden they want to make a change in the rules. It doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time, in that case, it was muted. I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine.”

The former president added, “The truth is, they’re trying to get out of it. Because she doesn’t want to debate. She’s not a good debater. She’s not a smart person.”

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:

Tom Tillison
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