The first duel between Trump and Harris is still pending. But even before that, a number of poisonous arrows are flying back and forth between the two camps. The Republican is particularly targeting the broadcaster that is broadcasting the event.
The big showdown in the TV debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is supposed to take place in about two weeks. But there is increasing discontent from both camps, which now raises the question of whether the debate on September 10 will take place as planned.
Former President Trump has particularly targeted the broadcaster ABC News. “Why would I do a debate against Kamala Harris on this network?” he wrote on Sunday on his own social media platform Truth Social. In his post, he changed the name of the channel to “ABC Fake News.”
The trigger for his eloquent displeasure was an interview by an ABC reporter with Republican Senator Tom Cotton from the US state of Arkansas. While Cotton gave a “fantastic” performance, the reporter conducted the conversation in a “ridiculous” and “biased” manner. Trump also accused several of the station’s moderators of favoring his Democratic rival, whom he described as a “Marxist,” in the duel. The experts appearing on the station were a “group of Trump haters,” said the 78-year-old.
Microphones on or off?
The campaigns of both candidates are also arguing about the rules of the only joint TV appearance agreed upon by the two candidates. The Harris camp apparently wants to tweak the rules again. “We have told ABC and other broadcasters who are planning to host a possible debate in October that we believe both candidates’ microphones should be on throughout the broadcast,” said a campaign spokesman for the Democrat, Brian Fallon.Politico“. Until now, it had been agreed that the microphone of the party that was not speaking at the time would be turned off during the TV appearance. This rule also applied to the Biden-Trump duel on CNN in June.
Fallon openly justified the request for change with Trump’s alleged lack of self-control. “We assume that Trump’s advisers prefer the microphone turned off because they do not believe that their candidate can act as president for 90 minutes alone.”
The Trump camp took up the jibe and countered: “Now that the Harris campaign has begun preparing for the debate, they are clearly concerned about what they are seeing from Harris’ performance,” said Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller. The Harris campaign is trying to change the rules to prevent the debate after all, said the spokesman. “If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messages she is supposed to memorize, that’s her problem,” said Miller.
It is not yet clear whether there will be further meetings after the already agreed-upon duel in September. Both sides have been arguing for some time about dates, broadcasters and the framework for further meetings. Trump recently challenged Harris to face him in a total of three duels. Among other things, the Republican wants an event on the right-wing channel Fox News – with a large audience.
However, the duel between the two vice-candidates is definitely a done deal. JD Vance and Tim Walz have agreed on a TV duel in October. This will take place on October 1st and will be hosted by CBS.