There is only one scheduled debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris, planned to be hosted by ABC on September 10. Now, Trump has threatened to pull out:
Donald Trump has threatened to skip his TV debate with Kamala Harris over demands by the vice-president’s team that microphones be left “hot” at all times.
The Harris campaign has requested that both candidates’ microphones remain on throughout the presidential campaign debate so that Trump will be heard if he loses his cool.
Trump has since accused ABC News, the host of the Sept 10 head-to-head, of “biased” coverage and said: “Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?”
Obviously ABC is a Democratic Party network. That isn’t the question. But why should Trump fear hot mics?
Before being replaced by Ms Harris, Joe Biden had agreed with Trump that there would be no live audience at their debates and that microphones would be muted throughout except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak.
Mr Biden’s team believed this would stifle Trump’s ability to dominate and potentially derail the debate, as he did during their first on-stage encounter in the 2020 election.
Ms Harris’ campaign has taken a different view, and believes an unfettered Trump would alienate undecided voters watching at home and hand them an advantage.
They may be right about that, and in fact the calculus could be different depending on whether Trump is facing a man (Biden) or a woman (Harris).
Maybe this is all just posturing and jockeying, but the reality is that Trump needs a debate (or two) a lot more than Harris does. Harris has surged following the Democratic Convention and in one highly publicized poll leads Trump by seven points. That is ridiculous, but on the polling average, Harris is ahead, and the betting odds are currently even, which is how I see the race.
Harris is running a stealth campaign and is trying to sneak into the White House without answering hostile questions–or even friendly ones!–or attacks from the Trump campaign. So far, that strategy is working well. Trump needs one or more debates to show that Harris is the lightweight that she has always, until now, been taken for. The dumbest thing he could do is screw up the one debate he has on the calendar. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
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