Trump Harris Debate Starts With Muted Mics

The much-awaited presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris may have occurred on the 10th of September but the two candidates have already been at it since August over a rather heated topic—muted mics.

The muted mics were a rule that President Joe Biden agreed on with Trump’s campaign at the time when he was still set to run. It would entail that the microphone of a candidate will be muted when one is not set to speak, avoiding one of the two interrupting and speaking over each other on the debate stage.

However, since Biden stepped down as the Democratic party nominee and named Kamala Harris as the new candidate, Harris’ campaign wanted the microphone to be “hot” — meaning turned on during the whole duration of the debate. Such was the debate going around just 15 days until the ABC News event in Philadelphia.

The debate may have not officially started but the two parties were already going at it with Trump claiming that he’d rather have the microphones off during the debate while Harris insisting that they should be turned on.

On the issue, Trump said, “We agreed to the same rules and same specifications and I think that’s probably what it should be, but they’re trying to change it,” he said. “The truth is they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate. She’s not a good debater.”

Meanwhile, Harris campaign senior communications adviser Brian Fallon said in a statement, “The vice president is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real-time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”

For a time, both parties stood their ground. However, 5 days before the scheduled debate, Kamala Harris agreed to keep the mics muted throughout the 90-minute run against former President Donald Trump. In a letter the Harris campaign sent to ABC News, they stated, “Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format,” the letter read.

“We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones.”.

Hence, come the day of the presidential debate, the two candidates’ microphones were muted while their opponents spoke. Although the mics were muted, Kamala Harris made sure that her sentiments on some of Trump’s rebuttals were made known to the public. It could be seen through her facial expressions, scowling, and more — especially on topics where Trump made various false statements on abortions and infanticide, immigrants, and his repeated claim that he won the 2020 election.

Muted microphones or not, the two candidates must remain vocal on their campaigns and what their stands are on important issues.