Team Harris had 'planned' on unmuted mics, left 'scrambling to rewrite' debate strategy: report
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign team was reportedly left "scrambling" to rework their debate strategy after losing their bid to change the rules on microphones.
Former President Trump and Harris will face off for the first time on Tuesday in Philadelphia, in a debate moderated by ABC News. While the Harris campaign had insisted on moving forward with the debate as previously negotiated between the Biden and Trump Teams, it appears they were expecting the rules to change to make the microphones live throughout the event.
"Kamala Harris had planned to object, fact-check and directly question Donald Trump while he was speaking during their debate next week," Politico reported on Friday. "But now, with rules just finalized to mute the candidates when their opponents speaks, campaign officials said Harris advisers are scrambling to rewrite their playbook."
TRUMP, HARRIS CAMPAIGNS CLASH OVER DEBATE RULES: ‘WE SAID NO CHANGES’
The Harris campaign, according to the report, had wanted un-muted microphones "so that the vice president could lean on her prosecutorial background, confronting the former president in the same way she laced into some of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees and Cabinet members during Senate hearings."
Four of her own campaign officials now reportedly claim that she will be "handcuffed" by the rules set by her predecessor.
Some Democratic strategists said the debate terms were bad from the start.
One told Politico, "It was a bad set of rules for someone [Biden] who needed to be protected, who never should’ve been on the debate stage. And now they’re stuck with it."
Democratic strategist James Carville, by contrast, suggested the rules don’t tip the scales either way.
"[Trump] won’t be able to do his shenanigans