Difficult tasks in unscripted settings make it more likely that Vice President Kamala Harris will stumble and expose her deficiencies.
Unfortunately for the vice president, her Sept. 10 debate against former President Donald Trump will take place under rules similar to those that governed the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, per the New York Post.
ABC News, which will host the Harris-Trump debate, rejected the vice president’s request for unmuted microphones.
During the Trump-Biden debate, each candidate had his microphone muted while the other spoke.
That debate, which exposed Biden’s cognitive decline and eventually led to a party coup that forced him from the presidential race, also featured no audience or pre-written notes. Both candidates stood on stage with only a pen, pad of paper and water bottle.
The same rules will apply to the Trump-Harris debate.
ABC will host the 90-minute debate at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center.
The reason for the Harris campaign’s unmuted-microphone request remains unclear.
On the social media platform X, journalist Collin Rugg noted the Harris “appears to be increasingly worried about the upcoming debate.”
As the Post noted, perhaps the vice president hoped to trap Trump in an exchange that would give her a memorable viral moment.
Instead, she will have to respond to questions by thinking on her feet and speaking coherently. Neither task comes easily to her, as she has proven on many occasions.
On X, users responded more to her earlier reported desire for a cheat sheet than to her request for unmuted microphones.
“Imagine needing a cheat sheet as a presidential candidate lol,” Rugg added in the comments section.
“Kamala Harris wanted a cheat sheet because she’s too low IQ to function. What a disgrace,” another user wrote.
Above all, requests for changes to previously agreed upon rules make Harris look frightened and weak.
She already backed out of a debate on Fox News originally proposed for Sept. 4.
Meanwhile, clips of then-Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard eviscerating Harris during a 2019 debate — clips like the one Rugg posted — have made the rounds on X.
Gabbard, who endorsed Trump on Monday, has reportedly taken part in debate prep with the former president.
“Kamala had debate PTSD from Tulsi still,” one X user wrote, adding a laughing emoji.
In any event, ABC’s denial of the unmuted-microphone request guaranteed that many viewers will pay as much attention to how Harris manages the pressure of the format as they will to anything substantive she might say.
After all, in light of her obvious deficiencies, the bar remains as low for her as it did for Biden. The president, of course, could not clear even that hurdle.
Perhaps her handlers believe that she need only avoid a trademark word salad in order to escape the debate unscathed.
