Kamala Harris' campaign taunted Donald Trump and his "handlers" in a dispute over the rules for their upcoming presidential debate.The former president has suggested he might not take part in the Sept. 10 debate because he doesn't believe ABC News would be an impartial host, and his team would like ...
The Harris and Trump teams don't agree about whether mikes should be cut when their opponent is speaking.
You might think Team Harris wants the mikes cut. But actually, they want the mikes kept on throughout the debate. Team Trump wants them cut, because they are afraid Trump won't be able to control himself and end up looking bad. Which I think is hilarious.
You might think Team Harris wants the mikes cut. But actually, they want the mikes kept on throughout the debate. Team Trump wants them cut, because they are afraid Trump won't be able to control himself and end up looking bad. Which I think is hilarious.
I hope they know what they're doing . Trump voters don't expect Trump to present logical arguments and back them up. They expect him to shout nonsense, talk over his opponent, and then declare victory at the end because that's what their idea of "tough" is.
So I hope the Harris camp has thought this strategy all the way through. A debate "win" isn't determined by who presented the most logical arguments or the most coherent vision. The winner is determined by who gets a bump in the polls and ultimately gains voters afterwards, and potential Trump supporters aren't looking the same things as Democrats.
Harris isn't using the debate to win over Trump supporters. That ship has sailed. She is using the debate to win over swing voters and motivate her own supporters.
Polls show swing voters don't like it when Trump interrupts people, and it can motivate (ie enrage) her own supporters.
I know there are probably some good reasons not to go there, but I'd really love to see the Harris campaign turn this into a "free speech" argument. The righties have spent a lot of time conditioning their supporters with "free speech" dog whistles.
Open mic is like handing Dementia DonOLD a rope that he will no doubt hang himself with. I'm all for it. The fact that his team doesn't want it makes me want it even more.
Strategically speaking, why does Harris want open mics? I thought Dems pushed for the muted mics to prevent Trump from blabbering past his time? Seems like a situation that would make it hard for Harris to get a word in otherwise, trying to understand the benefit.
Probably because they think when (not if) Trump blabbers while Harris is trying to speak, it will make Trump look bad in front of undecided voters. I think they're right.
Team Harris might even try to pull a Chris Christie, who predicted what Rubio would say and watched his prediction come true, eg
Harris: "As a former prosecutor, I believe in following the rules. But Trump believes rules don't apply to him. He's not supposed to interrupt me, but he just did a moment ago. And mark my words: he will do it again soon, because -"
He won't be able to stay focused the entire time. I assume the Dems think that at some point he'll say something so monumentally stupid that even the media can't gloss over it any more.
But he says monumentally stupid things every hour of every day, it's hardly a blip any more. Idk, I have my doubts. I know Harris can hold her own but when his lies compound more lies before anyone can make an argument for truth, it becomes impossible to keep up even under the best conditions. It's not a court room with a judge that's going to hold anyone in contempt.
Because she’s a former DA with a significant amount of trial experience in pretty high-stakes cases, and Trump is an imbecile. I really do think she’d absolutely take him apart in a debate.
A courtroom is a highly controlled environment with everyone operating under oath and tangible consequences for breaking decorum, like I said in my other comment, overall I don't doubt Harris could hold her own - but it seems like a misstep that will allow trump to soak up all the airtime. I hope I'm wrong!
To his credit, Biden adhered to the give/take of ideas with Trump. It's courteous to let the other person speak and I'm sure he thought those watching would clearly see he's the reasonable person in the debate. Since Trump has no such courtesy, he just ran out the clock with nonsense, making Biden look weak/confused rather than reasonable. So they wanted the mics cut. I think they're confident in Harris' ability to put Trump on his ass when he tries with her.
They're pointing out that Trump wants muted mics because he can't shut up and won't be able to stop blabbering. The relatively sane people running trumps campaign know that would be a huge problem because he's already getting press for babbling batshit and a debate in prime time would be the last place they'd want him to go full demented narcissist.
By making it a news article, Trump sees it and is therefore pitted against his own campaign which he can't allow, so - it's win-win and they haven't even agreed to anything yet.
Guy’s completely fucked in the head. He’s going to say all sorts of weird stupid shit that will further entrench some fraction of undecideds in the Harris camp. Harris has been very smart to mock him and goad him into fits of verbal diarrhea.
As to not having the mics cut as a tactic so that Trump's bullying idiocy is on full display, I disagree. The idea that his ape-like behaviour is somehow a secret after nine years of his bullshit schtick is somewhat doubtful.
For comparison purposes, you need Harris' intelligent and reasoned argument immediately followed by Trump's bellowing laundry list of personal gripes, off-mark name calling, ridiculous lies and tangential remarks about sharks, electric cars and Hannibal Lector....
Then, once again, to be sharply contrasted by Harris' calm and normal description of her politics.
As fascinating as it to watch this Buffoon yelling and screaming on stage, no one will hear what Harris has to say and there will be plenty watching her for the first time waiting to hear.
Edit: Turns out that the Harris campaign wants live mics, so what do I know?
Him going off on a tirade doesn't take any trolling. That's his default state, unprovoked, regardless of what his own, actual plans were up until ten seconds ago.
Where 🫲🫱 did all the boy fights go? I've talked about this a while ago, I said "Wow 👐, where did all the boy fights go?" Back then there were boy fights now ☝️ there are no boy fights anymore, can you 🫵 believe this? Crooked Joe Biden turned all 👐 the boys gay so now they don't fight ✊ no more, meanwhile Mexican boy fights are streaming up the border 🫴
I'm way more concerned that the moderators will completely abdicate their responsibilities again. If Trump lies, which he will, frequently and obviously, they need to call that out.