Washington: Former President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has agreed to participate in a presidential debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on September 10, with new rules in place. Trump emphasized that a closed microphone policy would be enforced during the debate. However, the Harris campaign has yet to confirm these terms.
This decision follows a previous dispute where Trump threatened to withdraw from the debate, accusing the hosting network of bias after a clash between the two campaigns.
In a social media post, Trump stated that the debate rules would mirror those of a previous debate where he faced Joe Biden. Trump criticized Biden’s performance in that debate, which led Biden to eventually drop out of the presidential race.
"The rules will be identical to the last debate on CNN, which worked well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden. The debate will be a ‘stand-up’ format, and candidates will not be allowed to bring notes or ‘cheat sheets.’ Additionally, ABC has assured us that this will be a fair debate with no pre-knowledge of the questions for either side (No Donna Brazile!)," Trump wrote.
Trump also mentioned that a third debate has not been scheduled due to what he described as reluctance from the "Radical Left." He noted that Harris declined to participate in a Fox News debate scheduled for September 4, but that the date remains open should she reconsider. Trump criticized Harris for what he called her history of changing stances on key policies, adding that a potential third debate on NBC has not been agreed upon.
Meanwhile, Harris’s campaign expressed a preference for keeping both candidates’ microphones on throughout the debate, as opposed to muting them while the opponent is speaking, as was done in the previous presidential debate. The use of "hot mics" could potentially capture unscripted comments that might influence public opinion.
Trump's team previously proposed an additional debate on September 4 on Fox News, but Harris’s team rejected the idea.
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