Harris campaign forced to rewrite its debate strategy after failing to get open mikes
As reported by Politico, the vice president planned to "object, fact-check and directly question" Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face each other for the first time at the ABC debate/ Jim Watson.
The campaign of Kamala Harris had to rewrite the strategy for the debate with Donald Trump. As reported by Politico, from the Democratic candidate's team they were counting on being able to change the closed microphone rule. However, this was finally kept the same, which complicated the vice president in the run-up to the first confrontation with her rival.
According to the aforementioned media, these changes were not exactly easy to implement, so it turned out to be a headache for the vice president's team.
"Kamala Harris had planned to object, fact-check and directly question Donald Trump while he was speaking during their debate next week. But now, with rules just finalized to mute the candidates when their opponents speak, campaign officials said Harris advisers are scrambling to rewrite their playbook," Politico reported.
In turn, they noted that Harris wanted the open mics "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."
Under anonymity in order to speak more freely, campaign officials dared to comment that Harris will be "handcuffed" at the debate because of the rules.
"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," a Democratic strategist confided to Politico.
As for the debate, which will take place Tuesday night on ABC, the Harris campaign tried for weeks to change the rule to open mikes. They gave up their intentions a few days ago, via a letter to the network.
"Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the vice president. We suspect this is the primary reason for her campaign's insistence on muting the microphones," the message read.
The rules of the first debate between Trump and Harris
Despite the disagreement, both campaigns agreed on the following rules for the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris:
- Microphones muted while the other candidate is speaking.
- The moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only ones asking questions and the candidates will not be allowed to ask questions to each other.
- Each candidate will have two minutes to answer a question and two minutes to respond to the other candidate. They will also have an additional minute to "follow up, clarify or respond."
- They may not bring pre-stage notes, although they may take notes during the debate. They will be given a pen, notebook and a bottle of water.
- There will be no opening statements.
- The event will be held with no audience present.
- Candidates will not be allowed to speak to their advisors during the two commercial breaks.
- The debate will last for 90 minutes.
LATEST
