Kamala Harris has been ducking reporters and not answering questions. She gave one softball interview — but with the aid of her “emotional support governor,” Tim Walz.
But now the debate is quickly approaching on September 10. As we reported, they are now trying to argue that Harris is “fundamentally disadvantaged” by having the mics muted when she’s not speaking.
But that’s the very point that Joe Biden asked for — former President Donald Trump didn’t ask for that. So, once again, right out of the box, the Harris team is being dishonest about that. Harris was also the one insisting on how they had to keep to the rules/date agreed to for a debate with Joe Biden, so it’s hilarious she now wants to get out of those rules.
READ MORE: Harris Finally Surrenders on the Debate Rules, and Her Crying Is Hilarious
It also sounds like the Harris team is still trying to change the rules. They appear to be butting heads with ABC on what has been agreed to, even as they say there’s an agreement. According to what was conveyed to POLITICO, Harris campaign official Brian Fallon claimed there were “verbal agreements” that were important to getting Harris to finally agree to proceed.
Those agreed-to stipulations enable the moderators to admonish any candidate who interrupts and urge them to convey anything said into a muted mic to the broader audience. Additionally, the network will have the ability to keep both microphones open during crosstalk or any heated back-and-forth. And, unlike in the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, the small pool of journalists traveling with Harris should be in the debate hall and close enough to the stage to be able to hear any remarks that are muted for the wider television audience.
CNN reported a similar story.
The network, according to the source familiar, has offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, it may choose to turn on the mics so that the public can understand what is happening, the moderator would discourage either candidate from interrupting constantly and the moderator would also work to explain to viewers what is being said.
Pool reporters, who can report on what they hear both sides saying, will also be in the room, the source added.
But ABC is saying there are no new rules or stipulations — that they’re running with what was agreed to in May. So what’s going on here? Has ABC made some off-the-record deal with the Harris team that they stupidly revealed? Or is this the Harris team just being their own typical mess?
Either way, Harris is now in Pennsylvania for her debate camp. Even before then, in strategy sessions, there were problems, as our sister site PJ Media notes, citing NOTUS.
“At times, according to two people familiar with the process, strategy sessions have careened sideways when the vice president focused too narrowly on minute details, effectively derailing the sessions,” the report acknowledged.
The article appears intent on lowering expectations as well. But it also gave the game away as to why Kamala’s campaign desperately wants live microphones.
Allies say Harris has had to defend her ideas inside the White House over the last three years, preparing her in some ways for this moment. But Harris is, for all intents and purposes, an out-of-practice debater with people who aren’t her colleagues. Next week’s debate will come just a month shy of four years since she debated Vice President Mike Pence in Utah. For that, aides holed up in a hotel in Salt Lake City days before the debate, as she used index cards to work through talking points — including the now-famous “I’m speaking” line, which one person involved in the session said was a crowdsourced suggestion. [emphasis mine]
So even that line was staged. Is there anything about Harris that isn’t fake or staged?
But it sounds like she’s falling into the same trap as Biden: Trump is so in her head, she’s freaking out and overanalyzing because she can’t do unscripted. She wanted to be able to talk over people like she did to Mike Pence but now she can’t.
Now, I think the chances are whatever happens at the debate, a lot of the MSM will do what they can to paint it favorably for her even if she falls off the stage. But it sounds like she’s already having issues, so it’s going to be something to see.
