Trump Suggests Debate Rules Are Set. Harris’s Team Says Otherwise.

Donald J. Trump announced for a second time that he would participate in a presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris hosted by ABC News and suggested that the question of whether microphones will be muted when a candidate isn’t speaking had been resolved.

But a person briefed on the Harris campaign’s thinking said the issue of whether the microphones will be muted — something the Trump team favors and the Harris team does not — remains an open discussion. A spokesman for ABC declined to comment.

Mr. Trump wrote on his social media website that the rules of the debate “will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps,” President Biden.

The debate hosted by CNN, which took place in Atlanta on June 27, was calamitous for Mr. Biden, precipitating his decision on July 21 to end his re-election effort. During that debate, microphones for the candidates were muted when they weren’t speaking, a term encouraged by the Biden team.

That was ultimately seen by Mr. Trump’s advisers as beneficial to him, because it prevented the former president from the type of frequent and self-harming eruptions he is prone to. Instead, the focus was on Mr. Biden and his struggles to articulate his thoughts.

Politico reported on Monday that the Harris and Trump team had hit an impasse over whether the microphones will be muted for the Sept. 10 debate, set to take place in Philadelphia.

Mr. Trump’s team accused the Harris team of a bait and switch. Yet Mr. Trump himself, in an appearance on Monday in Virginia, said he personally didn’t care.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Mr. Trump said. “I’d rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

Ammar Moussa,