Let's Have a Clean Fight: ABC Releases Rules for the Presidential Debate, Harris Team Claims 'Disadvantage'

ABC News has released the rules for the next debate, and Team Harris is already unhappy…

Next week on September 10th ABC News will moderate the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris; it will take place in Philadelphia at the National Constitutional Center.

Rules as released by ABC News are below:

• No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.
• Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.
• Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.
• No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.
• Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water.
• Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.
• Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.
• Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.
• Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.
• Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.
• There will be no audience in the room.

Despite efforts by the Harris campaign to ensure the microphones would be on for the entire 90-minute debate, ABC News has gone with the original agreed-upon rules and will keep the microphones off when the candidates aren’t speaking.

Team Harris has a problem with this and wrote a letter to ABC News.

“Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President,” the letter said. “We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones.”

The debate will begin at 9PM EST and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+, and Hulu.