Amid a bitter public battle over whether microphones will be muted during the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the former president’s team is now revealing that his Democratic opponent wanted to change other aspects of their face-off.
Trump senior adviser Corey Lewandowski told reporters on a call Thursday morning that Harris’ team attempted to pressure ABC News to alter debate logistics to benefit her.
For one, the vice president wanted to be able to bring notes to the stage — a rare occurrence for a presidential debate that comes at a time when Republicans are saying the vice president won’t perform well off-script.
The 1.62m tall candidate also wanted to sit rather than stand behind respective podiums in front of the 1.90m tall former president, Lewandowski revealed.
But the Harris-Walz campaign told DailyMail.com that the Trump team’s latest claims are false.
Kamala Harris didn’t just want to unmute her microphones: She also wanted to be able to take notes and sit down for her first interview with Donald Trump on September 10.
The most well-known has been the disagreement over muting microphones when it is not the candidates’ turn to answer a question or rebut their opponent, which many saw as a benefit to the former president during his debate with President Joe Biden earlier this summer.
But the lack of notes, the staging and the muting of the microphone will remain consistent with the June debate on CNN between Trump and Biden.
With just 12 days until the Sept. 10 debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harris’ team appears to have agreed to the final terms, with the rules briefs set to be released Thursday.
As with the CNN debate, there will be no audience, depriving the candidates of the opportunity to try to win forbidden applause with one-liners. Props and pre-written notes are not allowed on stage.
Candidates will receive a blank sheet of paper, a pen and a bottle of water.
The two ABC moderators are David Muir and Linsey Davis.
The rules allow candidates two minutes to respond. An additional minute is allowed for comments and replies.
When Harris was still running for re-election as vice president with Biden in the lead, her campaign agreed with Trump’s team and ABC News to previously established rules, which included muting microphones.
But Lewandowski says Harris wants accommodations now because her team doesn’t “trust” her ability to go off-script and debate Trump without a crutch.
The vice president went 38 days without sitting down for a formal interview or holding a press conference after entering the 2024 race as a presidential candidate. The vice president will finally sit down Thursday afternoon for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, but her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will join her for the interview.
Asked if the microphone problem was now over, Lewandowski told reporters at a news conference on Thursday morning: “Yes, we have solved it.”
“When we originally negotiated the debate rules, those rules were discussed, negotiated and agreed to by the Biden-Harris campaign at the time,” he explained. “That included the vice presidential debate, which (Harris) was supposed to participate in, until they kicked Joe out like a dog and… coordinated her for the presidential nomination.”
“Here’s what happened,” he continued. “Kamala Harris’ team came back and said, ‘We want to sit down for the debate. We don’t want to stand. We’d like to bring notes to the debate because we don’t feel confident in our ability to answer questions without notes. Oh, and we want to keep our microphones on.'”
“None of those things were previously agreed to, and we’re holding them accountable to the same standards we used when we negotiated with the Biden-Harris campaign, because that’s what she agreed to as the vice presidential nominee and the vice presidential debate process.”
Trump senior adviser Corey Lewandowski revealed the requests Harris’ team made as they tried to renegotiate the rules and logistics of the debate after previously agreeing to the terms when she was still running for reelection as vice president.
Trump wants the rules to remain the same as those for the CNN debate in Atlanta, Georgia, in June, when he beat President Joe Biden.
He said the 90-minute debate would feature candidates standing, with no pre-written notes and with their microphones muted.
“That’s what has been agreed, ABC has agreed to it. That’s what will happen in just over a week.”
Trump and his Republican allies say Harris is incapable of performing well without prepared remarks or notes to guide her. They use her delay of more than a month to conduct an interview or news conference as evidence of her team’s lack of confidence in her ability to go off-script and her historic lack of likability.
CNN anchor Dana Bash will meet with Harris on Thursday afternoon for her first interview as a presidential candidate. The interview will air later Thursday night.
Lewandowski says Bash has an “obligation… to ask Kamala Harris the tough questions she has been avoiding since her coronation as the Democratic nominee.”
Meanwhile, Harris’ campaign has relied on pressure from Trump to mute her microphone as a sign that her advisers do not believe the former president can control himself during a debate.
“We have told ABC and other networks looking to host a potential debate in October that we believe both candidates’ microphones should be on throughout the broadcast,” Harris’ senior communications adviser Brian Fallon said in a statement this week.
“We understand that Trump’s advisers prefer the microphone to be muted because they do not believe their candidate can act as president for 90 minutes on his own,” he continued.
“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.”
Trump said this week that his campaign “came to an agreement” with Harris and ABC to keep the microphones muted.