Will the microphones be muted at the next presidential debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris? It still seems to be an open question.

Trump took to Truth Social to claim he had reached an agreement with Ms. Harris for the September 10 debate on ABC News. 

“I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business, on Tuesday, September 10th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Trump declared in a post on Tuesday.

He claimed the debate rules will “be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden.” 

Specifically, he said the debate will be “stand up,” and neither candidate can bring notes or “cheat sheets.”

Trump did not mention the rules regarding whether microphones would be muted during the ABC News debate. However, the rules for the CNN debate dictated that microphones would be muted when the other candidate spoke to prevent interruptions and avoid a repeat of the chaotic and contentious 2020 debate between Trump and President Biden. 

The claim that both candidates agreed to the same rules as the CNN debate seemed to suggest an agreement had been reached to keep the microphones muted. 

However, in a statement, the Harris campaign has rejected Trump’s claim and says the rules for the debate have not been settled. “Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates — but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!”

Ahead of Trump’s June debate with Mr. Biden, conservatives expressed frustration with the decision to mute the microphones while the other candidate was speaking as they claimed it was an attempt to hurt the former president. 

However, after the debate sparked concerns about Mr. Biden’s age and prompted calls for him to end his re-election bid, Trump appears fine with keeping the microphones muted when he is not speaking. 

Speaking to reporters on Monday, he said the campaigns agreed to the rules for the ABC News debate and added he would “rather” have the microphones stay on. Still, he insisted it “doesn’t matter” if they are muted or not.

While Trump has not taken too firm of a stance on the issue of microphones, his campaign is pushing for them to be muted. In a statement on Monday, Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller claimed, “This is only coming up now that the Harris campaign has started their debate prep. Even their own campaign spokesman said the debate about debates was over. Clearly, they’re seeing something they don’t like.”

The Harris campaign is pushing to keep the microphones live. A spokesman for the campaign told the BBC, “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.”

Amid the standoff over whether the microphones will be muted, Trump has suggested he may decide to back out of the debate as he pointed to what he sees as the “hostility” from ABC News.