Trump Wins Debate Coin Toss, Here’s What That Means

ABC News announced President Trump won the coin toss for the 2024 presidential debate.

On September 3, Trump won a virtual coin toss held by ABC News.

The coin toss was conducted to determine who would make closing statements and who would choose stage placements during the debate.

After winning the coin toss, the Trump campaign chose to have the closing statements of teh debate, and the Harris campaign picked the right podium(seen by viewers), which is on the left side of the stage.

🚨New: President Trump has won the coin toss for the Presidential Debate next week. Trump chose to have the final statement in the debate. pic.twitter.com/6QvR7Fxcau

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) September 5, 2024

JUST IN: President Trump has secured the coin toss victory for next week's highly anticipated debate on ABC!

He has chosen to have the last words. That should not sit well with the queen bee.

Is anyone else getting the feeling that Kamala might drop out before then? pic.twitter.com/ovr3xhl1fE

— 🇺🇸 Larry 🇺🇸 (@LarryDJonesJr) September 5, 2024

Per ABC 7 News:

On Wednesday, ABC News released rules for the highly anticipated event.

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Officials say Harris and Trump both accepted the guidelines.

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.

We won the coin toss!
Go Trump/Vance 2024! https://t.co/Uteb0gZVeK

— Susan.Ska001289 (@susAn12118) September 4, 2024

Per First Post:

As the race for the White House intensifies, Former US President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have finally accepted the rules for the first presidential debate against each other. The debate is scheduled to take place on September 10 in Philadelphia and will be aired on ABC News. The American news outlet confirmed that both the Republican and Democratic Presidential nominees “have qualified for the debate under the established criteria, and both have accepted the following debate rules”.

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For weeks, Trump and the Harris campaign have been butting heads over the debate rules. One of the rules which saw the most contention was whether microphones should be shut off when it was not a candidate’s turn to speak.

The Harris campaign had previously pushed for live, or “hot”, microphones, which would allow substantive exchanges between the candidates. However, Trump’s campaign pushed for the microphones to be muted. Ultimately, ABC News released a statement in which they made it clear candidates’ microphones would be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak – and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.