Harris and Trump Campaigns Agree to Debate’s Microphone Rules

The great debate microphone muting drama of 2024 has come to a quiet end.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has begrudgingly agreed to have her and former President Donald J. Trump’s microphones muted when they are not speaking, a position top Harris officials tried to change last week to give themselves an advantage when the candidates meet onstage next Tuesday.

Brian Fallon, a top Harris aide, wrote on Wednesday to officials at ABC News, which is broadcasting the debate from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, that Ms. Harris “will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges” with Ms. Harris.

President Biden’s campaign, when he was still running, had insisted on having the microphones muted when the candidates were not speaking as a condition of participating in debates with Mr. Trump. But once Ms. Harris became the Democratic nominee, her aides wanted the microphones unmuted, in an effort to goad Mr. Trump into interrupting Ms. Harris and creating an organic moment for her like when she told Vice President Mike Pence, “I’m speaking,” during a 2020 vice-presidential debate.

Mr. Trump said last week that it “doesn’t matter to me” whether the microphones are muted. “I’d rather have it probably on,” he said. “But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

His campaign did not agree to change the rules that had been negotiated by the Biden campaign.

Mr. Fallon, in his letter to ABC, sought to characterize the rules that the Biden campaign had insisted on as Mr. Trump’s preference. The letter to ABC was first reported by Politico.

“We understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened