ABC News has reportedly declined Vice President Kamala Harris‘ request to have unmuted microphones during her scheduled debate with former President Donald Trump on September 10, the New York Post reported exclusively on Thursday (August 29).
An email obtained by the newspaper showed a similar rules layout to the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, which includes no audience, no pre-written notes or props and mics being muted when the opposite candidate was speaking. The presidential candidates will only be allowed to have a pen, pad of paper and bottle of water while on stage during the debate.
Harris’ camp lobbied to have both candidates’ microphones live for the entire 90-minute forum, while Trump’s representatives insisted the ABC News debate follow the exact same guidelines as the CNN debate in June.
“At this point, Team Harris is going to be taking an ‘L’ when they finally accept, as the debate rules aren’t changing, or they’ll take an even bigger ‘L’ if they back out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview goes poorly,” a Trump ally said, referring to Harris’ first public interview since accepting the Democratic presidential nomination scheduled to air Thursday night.
Harris is reported to be ahead of Trump by a 47.2% to 43.7% margin, according to polling averages conducted by FiveThirtyEight.com, however, Trump is currently projected to surpass the 270 electoral vote threshold to be elected based on state polling, leading in several battleground states, according to RealClearPolling.com. Last week, a CBS News/YouGov poll projected that Harris and Trump were both reported to be at 50% among likely voters in battleground states, while Harris has a 51% to 48% edge nationally.
Harris also has a 56% advantage in support from women while Trump has a 54% edge among men. Trump famously defeated former First Lady and Senator Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election despite trailing by 6.5 points in polls.
Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College by a 304 to 227 margin. Trump also trailed President Joe Biden by nine points in polls leading up to the 2020 presidential election, however, lost by just 4.4 percentage points.
Recent Comments