ABC News has released the rules for next week’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
The debate will take place on September 10th.
Trump and Harris reportedly both accepted the guidelines.
Per 6 ABC:
- The debate will last 90 minutes with two commercial breaks
- The two seated moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only people asking questions
- A coin flip was held virtually on September 3 to determine podium placements and order of closing arguments; Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. He will offer the last closing statement, and Harris selected the right podium on screen (stage left)
- Candidates will be introduced by moderators
- Candidates will enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first
- There will be no opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate
- Candidates will stand behind the podiums for the duration of the debate
- Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage
- No topics or questions will be shared in advance
- Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water
- Candidates will have two minutes to answer questions, two minutes for rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses
- Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate
- Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other
- Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks
- Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion
- There will be no audience in the room
ABC releases debate rules —
Muted mics, no audience pic.twitter.com/NNurGMdq4K
— Aishah Hasnie (@aishahhasnie) September 4, 2024
From The Hill:
The vice president’s team pushed to change the rule to keep microphones unmuted, but ABC said Wednesday that microphones will only be live during their turn to speak and will be muted when it’s their opponent’s turn to speak. This is the same set of microphone rules that President Biden and Trump adhered to during the CNN debate in June.
Next week’s debate will be moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis and will take place in the the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pa., without an audience. The debate will be 90 minutes long and include two commercial breaks.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up.
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