Kamala Harris backed down.
There is no other way to describe what just happened.
And Kamala Harris waived the white flag of surrender after picking one fight with Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris pushed for last minute debate rules change
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are set to debate tonight on ABC.
It’s likely this will be the only debate between the two.
Kamala Harris’ momentum stalled out and private polling data shows the momentum is shifting to Donald Trump.
…whether you believe these numbers or not, the trend is notable. These were the results from polling that was in the field just before Labor Day weekend.
Top to bottom are Montana (polling due to Senate race), Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada & Wisconsin: pic.twitter.com/vxXLv8S0cm
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 4, 2024
Given that this debate could be the last chance for Kamala Harris to alter the trajectory of the race, Kamala Harris tried to pull a power play to rig the debate in her favor.
Joe Biden initially demanded a set of rules for his debate where the microphone of the opposing candidate would get muted when the other was speaking.
The muted microphone prevented Donald Trump from interrupting Biden when he spoke.
That proved to be a major miscalculation by Democrats as in the first debate in 2020, Trump turned off voters by constantly interrupting Biden in the hopes of throwing Biden off his game.
Muting the microphone allowed voters to concentrate on what Biden was saying and that focused all the attention on his cognitive decline.
Kamala Harris’ handlers worried that this time the muted microphones would eliminate any chance of Kamala Harris to stage a contrived moment where Trump interrupted her and Kamala shot back at Trump with her “I am speaking” line.
Depriving Kamala Harris of that moment also meant that when Kamala Harris spoke voters would get her uninterrupted word salads.
And the one thing Kamala Harris’ handlers have done so far in the campaign is try and limit any chances voters get to see the unfiltered Kamala Harris speak.
Kamala Harris surrenders on debate demands
Donald Trump and his campaign held firm on the fact that the already agreed upon rules included muted microphones.
And Kamala Harris had no choice but to give in.
Kamala Harris’ campaign announced their surrender in a petulant letter that tried to set expectations low for the debate by claiming it was unfair Kamala Harris wouldn’t get to conduct a live cross examination of Donald Trump.
“Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President,” the letter from Kamala Harris’ campaign read.
The campaign tried to pretend like Kamala Harris was being the adult in the room by agreeing to the rules that were already in place for the debate.
“Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format. We do not want to jeopardize the debate,” the letter added.
But the goal of the letter was to put the excuse in place that Donald Trump forced Kamala Harris into a supposedly unfair format to pre-emptively explain away any poor performance.
