Vice President Kamala Harris debunked former president Donald Trump's claims that both parties had reached an agreement to use "muted" microphones for the presidential debate on Sept 10.
According to Reuters, an official from the Harris campaign said that the issue is still an "ongoing" conversation with ABC, the host network for the debate scheduled for Sept. 10.
On Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that his camp and the vice president's reached an agreement, and that the Sept. 10 debate would have the same rules with that of the June 27 debate on CNN against President Joe Biden. However, the latter opted to drop out of the race following calls for him to do so, especially with his dismal performance during the CNN debate.
"The Debate will be 'stand up,' and Candidates cannot bring notes, or 'cheat sheets.' We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a 'fair and equitable' Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance," Trump declared.
Accordingly, the CNN debate between Trump and Biden did not have a live audience and the post of Trump also did not refer to it. What the Harris campaign was standing firm on was that there has not been any agreement between the parties.
"Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates - but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!" Harris' campaign stated.
On Monday, both campaigns clashed over the debate, which has already been previously agreed upon. The camp of Harris wanted a return to open microphones. However, Trump also threatened to be pulling out of the whole thing, insinuating that the network is biased.
According to the New York Times, Trump's team accused the camp of the vice president of "bait and switch." However, Trump also said that he just didn't care when he appeared in Virginia on Monday.
As for the camp of Harris, they wanted to keep the microphones on all throughout the debate instead of muting them whenever the opponent is speaking. This was done in the last presidential debate between Trump and Biden.
