Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to face off in their first debate on Tuesday, but the Harris campaign is reportedly "scrambling" to adjust their strategy after losing their bid to change the rules on microphone usage.
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Harris Campaign Scrambles to Rework Debate Strategy Amid Microphone Rule Dispute
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are preparing for their first face-to-face debate on Tuesday in Philadelphia, moderated by ABC News. However, the Harris campaign has been thrown into disarray after their attempt to change the rules on microphone usage was denied.
According to a report by Politico, the Harris campaign had planned to use a strategy of objecting, fact-checking, and directly questioning Trump while he was speaking. However, with the microphones now set to be muted when the candidates are not speaking, the campaign is reportedly having to rewrite their playbook.
Harris Campaign Scrambles to Rework Debate Strategy Amid Microphone Rule Dispute
"Kamala Harris had planned to object, fact-check and directly question Donald Trump while he was speaking during their debate next week," Politico reported. "But now, with rules just finalized to mute the candidates when their opponents speaks, campaign officials said Harris advisers are scrambling to rewrite their playbook."
The Harris campaign had wanted un-muted microphones "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," according to Politico.
Harris Campaign Scrambles to Rework Debate Strategy Amid Microphone Rule Dispute
Four of her own campaign officials now reportedly claim that she will be "handcuffed" by the rules set by her predecessor.
Some Democratic strategists say the debate terms were bad from the start. One told Politico, "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."
Harris Campaign Scrambles to Rework Debate Strategy Amid Microphone Rule Dispute
However, Democratic strategist James Carville suggested the rules don’t tip the scales either way.
"[Trump] won’t be able to do his shenanigans either," he said. "So it seems kind of like a wash to me."
The same report also claimed, "Some Democrats privately dismiss the Harris campaign’s frustration as largely gamesmanship and expectation-setting around Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia."
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller reportedly expressed joy on behalf of the campaign that Harris "finally accepted the already agreed-upon rules of the debate that they wrote in the first place," later adding, "Americans want to hear both candidates present their competing visions to the voters, unburdened by what has been. No notes, no sitting down, no advance copies of the questions."
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
The Harris campaign had repeatedly pushed back on the rule about microphones, trying to goad Trump into backing out of the original agreement to mute mics, even initially refusing to sign off on the rules in an attempt to renegotiate.
The campaign sent a letter to the network last week officially agreeing to the original debate rules while still complaining about the terms.
"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 his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones," the letter read.
