A senior adviser to former President Trump alleges that Kamala Harris is attempting to evade the highly anticipated debate with Trump, set for September 10 on ABC. “I think that the Harris campaign is looking for an escape hatch, is looking for a way to get out of this debate,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller on “Sunday Morning Futures” on the Fox News Channel. “To be clear, these are the rules that the Democrats wrote. These are the rules we had in place for the CNN debate. Everyone had agreed to the rules at least informally with ABC. We have a deal with ABC, ABC has a deal, ABC is with us all the way on this.”
Miller continued: “But here’s what I think happened. I think the Harris folks started going into debate prep, and now they realize what they’re working with. They realize that they’re in real trouble with Kamala Harris. They also know that President Trump is the greatest debater in modern political history, so I think they’re nervous and want a way out.” Fox News host Sean Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, seemed incredulous at the possibility Harris would back out of debating Trump, and asked Miller: “So is your point that Kamala Harris’ team has not confirmed the September 10th debate?”
“Absolutely not,” Miller responded. “And it’s mind-boggling because you would think that they’d want to debate. I mean, the American public does deserve this. But they refuse to accept the terms of the debate which, again, everyone had already agreed to it. We’d agreed to it, ABC’s agreed to it. The rules are the rules, they’re not changing.” He added: “But Kamala Harris and her campaign, they’re afraid. Think about it for a moment, Sean. Why did the they wait 39 days to even do this joint interview where Kamala Harris spoke for all of 16 minutes and 29 seconds and now this is day 42 that Kamala Harris has gone without doing a solo interview?”
Miller went on: “This is really bizarre. I think they’re afraid and they don’t want to put Kamala Harris out there. You want to know why? Because she’s going to have to answer for every bit of this last three and a half years. You can’t talk about turning the page when you’re the one who broke the economy, broke the border, broke the world. That’s on Kamala, and she’s going to have to account for that on the debate stage.”
WATCH:
‘Mind-boggling’: Trump adviser Jason Miller says #Kamala campaign ‘looking for escape hatch to get out of this #debate‘
‘President #Trump is the greatest debater in modern political history, so I think they’re nervous and want a way out’ pic.twitter.com/Wvsv84EF8O
— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) September 1, 2024
Politico reported last week that Harris’ team insists on keeping microphones at both podiums live for the full two-hour debate. The request represents a reversal from the Biden campaign’s stance during the June 27th debate, where they pushed for Trump’s microphone to be muted. Harris spokesman Brian Fallon argued that Trump’s team should have no issue agreeing to this new condition if they have confidence in their candidate.
“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, told Politico Playbook in a text message Sunday night. “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”
It should be noted that when Trump debated President Joe Biden, their mics were muted when it was not their turn to speak. Not only did Trump abide by those rules, but he also—by most accounts—so handily won that contest that it drove leading Democrats to demand that Biden drop his reelection bid.
Anonymous sources close to Harris said she is more than happy to let President Trump try to interrupt her on stage, suggesting she is excited about the possibility that the former president might lose his cool. “She’s more than happy to have exchanges with him if he tries to interrupt her,” one Harris confidant added. “And given how shook he seems by her, he’s very prone to having intemperate outbursts and … I think the campaign would want viewers to hear [that].”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.