A number of stories are out tonight saying that VP Harris has reluctantly agreed to muted mics for her debate with the Mangled Motormouth. HuffPost is one: Kamala Harris Team Says She'll Reluctantly Accept Debate Rules To Avoid Trump Ditching It
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has agreed to the rules of next week’s debate against former President Donald Trump, including keeping microphones off when it isn’t the candidate’s turn to speak.
But the Democratic nominee did not seem too eager to agree to the terms in her letter to ABC News informing them of her decision.
“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,” the campaign wrote in a letter to ABC News, which is hosting Tuesday’s debate.
The Harris campaign has really been pushing for live mics, taunting the other side by saying Trump’s handlers don’t believe he can behave for 90 minutes and want the open mics so they can show him flipping out. Another argument is that Harris wanted to be able to cross-examine him (as it were) and need him to be able to answer her.
But the Harris team knew or should have known all along that the only way to get Trump to meet her on the debate stage was to stick to the terms he’d already agreed to. He would have seized on any change as an excuse to wriggle out of having to go face-to-face with one of his worst nightmares: a competent, Black, woman, prosecutor. So I am led to wonder if Harris has been playing a misdirection game here, not quite along the lines of lowering expectations, but one designed to mislead Trump into thinking he got one over on her, that he can now mutter things that she will hear but the audience won’t, and won’t understand Harris’s response. He did exactly that to Biden, who was left to look vague and vacuous when what he really was, was non-plussed at Trump’s insane — but unheard — remarks.
Harris knows that, too. She watched that debate.
So I’m thinking she may be leading Trump on, and has a plan to deal with it when he tries to do the same thing this time. This could turn out to be a clever demonstration of her negotiating skills.
