USA Mic muted: rules for Trump-Harris duel are set

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her opponent Donald Trump have agreed on the rules for the upcoming TV duel - but the Republican is already sowing doubts about the impartiality of the broadcaster hosting the debate. "ABC is the worst network when it comes to fairness," Trump said in an interview with Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity. Without providing any evidence, Trump claimed that he "heard" Harris was getting the questions from ABC in advance.

Harris gets the short end of the stick in microphone dispute

ABC had previously published the rules for the eagerly awaited first televised duel between Trump and Harris. This was preceded by a dispute over the microphones. Specifically, it was about the question of whether they should be muted when the political opponent is speaking. An agreement now seems to have been reached: during the TV duel on September 10 (local time/September 11 CEST), the microphones of the person who is not speaking will be muted.

In other words, Harris has backed down. She wanted the microphones of both candidates to remain switched on for the entire broadcast. Her team let it be known that they were counting on Trump not being able to "act presidential for 90 minutes". Now her campaign team has written to the broadcaster ABC to say that the agreed format puts the 59-year-old at a disadvantage. Despite the concerns, however, they agreed to the rules as they feared that Trump would otherwise have canceled the TV duel, according to the letter, which was made available to US media.

TV duel between Biden and Trump continues to have an impact

Trump is likely to have learned from the TV duel with the then Democratic presidential candidate, US President Joe Biden, in June. Back then, the microphones of the person who was not speaking were muted. The muting was reportedly the fault of Biden's team. The Democrats wanted to prevent Trump from constantly interrupting the 81-year-old Democrat. After the debate, however, observers came to the conclusion that the muted microphones had actually helped Trump because the 78-year-old appeared more in control. Biden's performance, on the other hand, was a disaster - and resulted in his withdrawal from the race.

Trump was upset that Harris now wanted to change these rules and indirectly threatened to cancel the entire TV debate. The debate between Trump and Biden at the time was hosted by the US broadcaster CNN, which is considered liberal, and now it is ABC's turn. Trump called the station "dishonest" in an interview with Hannity and referred to a friendship between Harris and a manager at the station. The Republican said he had only agreed because Harris' team had insisted on the network. The 78-year-old had already agreed to the debate months ago, when Biden was still in the race.

Pen, paper and water are allowed

ABC has now announced that the debate will last 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks planned. There will be no opening statements and the candidates' closing statements will last two minutes. "No props or pre-written notes will be allowed on stage," ABC added. Harris and Trump would be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water. Trump now claimed on the Fox News program that Harris had demanded to be allowed to take notes into the duel.

Townhall on Fox News without audience questions

Trump's conversation with Hannity on Wednesday evening (local time) was a so-called Townhall. In such a format, questions from the audience are also permitted. However, no audience members were allowed to speak during the hour-long broadcast on Fox News, which was recorded in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. "The Hill" reported that corresponding audience questions to Trump were to be broadcast on Thursday. On Wednesday's program, Hannity praised the Republican candidate to the skies. He said, for example: "You've paid a high price for entering the political arena." Trump was being persecuted by the justice system, even though he could actually make a nice life for himself, Hannity said.

Fox News had moved away from Trump for a while - and tended to support the then Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. In the meantime, however, the station is once again firmly behind Trump. There are currently no plans for Fox News to host a TV debate during the election campaign. It could well be that the debate on ABC will be the only one between Trump and Harris. After Biden's withdrawal from the race, the entire plan for the negotiated TV debates was thrown out the window.

Close race expected

The presidential election on November 5 is expected to be a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump - they are roughly tied in the polls. The small margin between the two candidates is within the margin of error. However, the race has gained new momentum with Harris' assumption of the candidacy. The change in the Democrats had apparently hit Trump somewhat abruptly - he seemed to have turned his attention to his political nemesis Biden and is now working on a new strategy. He accuses Harris of being a radical leftist.

On Wednesday evening (local time), a well-known Trump critic spoke out: Republican Liz Cheney announced her intention to vote for Harris in the election. The announcement comes as no real surprise. However, the fact that die-hard Republicans are publicly calling for Democrats to be elected is very unusual. At the same time, Trump was pleased that the brother of the Democratic runner-up Tim Walz had made critical comments about him. Corresponding Facebook posts by Jeff Walz had recently attracted attention.