Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are scheduled to square off in a debate hosted by ABC on September 10.

While the vice president's campaign sought a major change in the rules, ABC has shut that demand down.  

Trump campaign adviser: "Enough with the games"

As Breitbart noted earlier this week, Trump and President Joe Biden previously agreed that each candidate's microphone would be muted when the other candidate is speaking.

That was the protocol followed earlier this year by CNN when it hosted the debate that many observers say all but killed Biden's candidacy.

However, Harris' campaign later attempted to have the microphone muting policy change, a fact which was ridiculed by senior Trump adviser Jason Miller.

"Enough with the games," Miller told Politico Playbook this past weekend. "We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate."

ABC rules that microphones will be muted

"The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules," he continued.

"If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem," Miller declared.

"This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won't allow Harris to do interviews, they won't allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate," he added.

The issue was apparently resolved this week, with CNN reporting that it will implement the microphone muting policy despite Harris' objections.

"Candidate microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, and muted when time belongs to another candidate," ABC said in a statement.

Harris campaign continues to push back

That ruling hasn't stopped the vice president's campaign from pushing, as evidenced by a social media post put up by campaign senior advisor Brian Fallon one day prior.

"We have been asked to accede to Trump’s handlers’ wishes on this point for the sake of preserving the debate. We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules," Fallon wrote on Monday.

Update: Our latest understanding is that even though Trump said Monday he would be fine with an unmuted mic, his handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris and are asking ABC to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the mics muted or else they will back out of the debate for…

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 29, 2024

"We have not done so because we think both candidates have expressed a clear desire to have hot mics. Not clear why Trump staff is overruling their principal, who should be capable of making up his own mind," he said.