Kamala Harris campaign claims Trump team asked for special measure at debate to stop him saying something 'embarrassing'

The Harris campaign claimed on Monday Donald Trump's team is pushing back on leaving the microphones on for the blockbuster debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in an effort to keep the Republican presidential nominee from embarrassing himself.

It comes as the ex-president is sowing doubt over whether he would show up at all for the showdown.

Harris and Trump are set to go head-to-head in their first debate in just over two weeks on September 10 on ABC News.

But it appears the campaigns are at odds over the rules with the Trump team agreeing to those set in June when President Biden was the presumptive nominee while the Harris campaign wants a change.

'We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,' said Brian Fallon in a statement. 

'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,' Fallon continued. 

The Harris campaign is claiming Trump's team wants mics muted when it's not a candidate's turn in the September 10 debate as Trump raises questions over whether he'll even show up

The response is the latest in a series of testy back and forth negotiations between the campaigns over debating after Harris replaced Biden at the top of the ticket. 

Trump and Biden were originally set to debate twice, first in June and then again in September.

But Biden's disastrous debate performance on June 27 was a catalyst for him exiting the race less than a month later amid mounting concerns from Democrats over the 81-year-old's ability to serve a second term. 

After Harris became the nominee, she said she was ready to keep the debate with Trump on September 10 and was open to later debates, but their one agreed upon matchup now appears to be in jeopardy.

In a post on Sunday night, the 78-year-old questioned whether he would debate Harris on ABC News in just over two weeks.

'I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?' Trump wrote.

The ex-president went on to blast on of Sunday's ABC News panelists Donna Brazile suggesting she would give the questions to Harris after she leaked CNN town hall topics to the Clinton campaign back in 2016 while she was a political analyst there.

 He also pointed out that Harris' friend heads up ABC and questioned whether anchor George Stephanopoulos would be involved.

 'They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!! Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN? Stay tuned!!!' Trump wrote in his post.

Earlier this month, Trump claimed he would go head-to-head with Harris and had agreed to three debates including the one on ABC News as well as one on Fox News on September 4 and another on NBC in late September.

The Harris campaign hit back after his late-night post in their statement Monday morning. 

They said they suspect the Trump campaign has not even told their candidate about the microphone dispute 'because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.'

Fallon said the vice president is ready, and Trump should 'stop hiding behind the mute button.'

Speaking on Monday morning in Virginia, the ex-president said he wanted to have a fair debate but suggested that couldn't happen on ABC News. When asked about the mics being muted, Trump signaled he was open to the change.

'Doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on,' he said. 'But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.'

The ex-president also accused the vice president of trying to get out of the debate. He claimed she is not a 'good debater' or a 'smart person.'

Harris has not formally accepted any additional debate offers besides September 10, but she did tell reporters while speaking on the tarmac in late July that she was open to it. 

Former President Trump and President Biden appeared for a debate on June 27 in Atlanta. The head-to-head matchup set of alarms over whether the 81-year-old president was up for a second term

The dispute over the mics being muted carries some irony as it was a rule the Biden campaign originally had pressed for when he was still the candidate before the June debate.

But the move appeared to backfire for the president who came across on camera as slow to respond and was unable to call Trump out for false statements in real time. 

It set off an avalanche of criticism that continued to mount until Biden dropped out of the race on July 21. 

After Trump said on Monday it did not matter to him, Fallon posted on X that the issue had been resolved and everything is set for September.