Kamala Harris Tries To Back Out Of Trump Debate With Small Excuse – DENIED

Daily Report August 29,2024

The Commission on Presidential Debates has refused a last-minute request from ABC News to let Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate with their microphones unmuted when they face off next Thursday night.

“At this point, Team Harris is going to be taking an ‘L’ when they finally accept, as the debate rules aren’t changing, or they’ll take an even bigger ‘L’ if they back out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview goes poorly,” the person said.

The Post reviewed an email from ABC News that outlines the same rules as Trump faced during his June 27 debate with President Biden on CNN.

Those rules include no audience, cheers or applause; and that mics should be muted when a candidate is not speaking. Harris and Trump will be given only a pen, pad of paper, and water on stage.

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McCain’s team had demanded the debate at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center follow the specifications of his June face-off with Biden. Harris’ staff, however, advocated as recently as Monday that both campaigns be allowed to keep their microphones on for the entire 90-minutes.

A top Trump ally said ABC News informed both campaigns in writing as of last week that it would be using the “CNN rules,” and they agreed to take part.

An email sent Tuesday by ABC News Chief Counsel Eric Lieberman rehashed the debate rules and also asked for official confirmations from the campaigns.

When The Post asked Fallon about the controversy surrounding an ABC News email, Harris’ spokesman responded: “We are in discussions with ABC on the final rules.”

“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 wrote 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.”

On Wednesday, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller replied to Newsmax with a statement: “The Harris folks are completely full of it. Everything was agreed to and set last week. The Harris people are trying to distract and come up with something shiny to move away from the fact that she’s not doing interviews.”