Kamala Harris Taunts Trump In Early Morning Jab Over Hot Mics At Debate: ‘Surrendering To His Advisers’

Vice President Kamala Harris taunted former President Donald Trump in an early morning jab over his campaign’s demand for microphones to be muted at the next debate, and tried to bait him into reversing course.

Trump’s campaign has been fighting to keep the rules that were originally agreed to for the September 10 debate on ABC, while the Harris campaign has pushed for microphones to remain hot at all times.

When the issue first surfaced, Harris campaign senior advisor for communications Brian Fallon told Mediaite in a statement:

“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. 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. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this 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. The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”

Trump himself undermined the campaign’s position when he said he’d be fine with hot mics:

REPORTER: Would you want the microphone muted in the debate whenever you’re not speaking?

TRUMP: We agreed to the same rules. I don’t know — doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. Uh, I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine.

Team Harris tried to capitalize on the declaration, but the Trump campaign has maintained its position.

Then on Saturday morning, VP Harris herself weighed in after The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey wrote on X/Twitter that the mic issue was still live:

Trump campaign has accepted these rules, per Tuesday email to ABC reviewed by the Post. Kamala Harris’s campaign has not yet accepted these rules, as they seek to unmute the microphones for the entire debate. Debate is in less than two weeks.

Harris quoted that post and wrote:

Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won’t allow him to debate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn’t have confidence in him, the American people definitely can’t. We are running for President of the United States.

Let’s debate in a transparent way—with the microphones on the whole time.

Trump did not immediately respond to Harris — but the day is young.