The rules of the ABC presidential debate finally revealed after fight over microphones
The rules have been officially set for the highly anticipated presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, after the campaigns clashed over whether to mute microphones, raising questions about whether the debate would happen at all.
The high-stakes event, hosted by ABC News, will take place on Tuesday, September 10 in Philadelphia and will mark the first and possibly only time the former president and vice president will ever meet.
Both candidates are under pressure to deliver a stellar performance on the debate stage, with less than 60 days until Election Day, when a number of voters are already able to cast their ballots.
The 90-minute must-see event is hosted by ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, who are the only ones asking questions.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face each other for the first time on the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday. ABC News has compiled a set of must-see rules for the event
ABC News released a set of rules just days before the showdown that both campaigns have agreed on, according to ABC News.
The candidates are introduced by the moderators, coming from opposite sides of the stage. Harris, as the incumbent, is introduced first.
Neither candidate will make an opening statement. Closing statements will be timed at two minutes per candidate.
The podium placement and order of the closing statements were determined by a virtual coin toss on Tuesday.
Trump, 78, won and chose to determine the order of the statements. He will deliver the second closing statement.
Harris, 59, chose to stand on the screen in the right-hand podium position, leaving Trump in the left-hand position. Both candidates will remain behind the podium for the duration of the debate.
Neither is allowed to have pre-written notes on stage. What candidates have on stage are a pen, a notepad and a bottle of water, ABC News revealed.
Kamala Harris chose to stand on the podium on the right side of the screen after Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to determine the order of closing arguments. He will go second
When it comes to questions, candidates are given two minutes to respond. There are also two minutes for rebuttals and an additional minute for follow-ups, clarifications and responses if necessary.
None of the topics or questions were shared with candidates or their campaigns in advance. And candidates are not allowed to ask each other questions.
When it comes to the most hardened rule for campaign debates, the candidates’ microphones will only be live for the candidate whose turn it is to speak. The microphones will be muted when it is not a candidate’s turn.
The rule remains the same as when Trump debated President Biden in June before dropping out of the race, but Harris’ campaign tried to keep the microphones active throughout the debate.
Microphones will be muted when it is not a candidate’s turn to speak during the Sept. 10 debate, as was the case during Biden’s ill-fated debate with Trump in June. Harris’ team pushed to have the microphones live, but was unsuccessful. They accused Trump’s team of not trusting their own candidate with live microphones, but Trump’s team pushed back, saying it was the vice president who was trying to get out of the debate
Harris’s team accused the former president’s campaign last month of trying to mute the microphones because they felt their candidate could not act like a president for 90 minutes.
The next day, Trump said they had agreed to the same rules as in June, but he also said he didn’t care and that he “would probably rather leave it on.”
Harris’ campaign team pointed to his comments and claimed the issue had been resolved, but the back-and-forth continued.
Trump’s campaign also accused the vice president of trying to pull out of the debate. Ultimately, the campaigns agreed to the same mic-muting rules as in June.
When Biden debated Trump later that month, it was the Biden campaign that had initially pushed for the microphones to be turned off when a candidate was not on the floor.
But the demand appeared to backfire, as the 81-year-old president was unable to object to Trump’s claims in real time. His embarrassing performance led to a growing number of Democrats calling for him to drop out of the race, which he did less than a month later.
On Tuesday, the moderators will be busy enforcing the time limits and continuing the discussion.
There will be no audience in the room for the 90-minute debate, contain two commercial breaks. Candidates are not allowed to communicate with their campaign staff during those breaks.
The debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.