eight days left before the presidential debate between U.S. Vice President Harris and former President Trump scheduled for September 10 , negotiations between the two candidates' teams reached a deadlock again on the 26th local time. The focus of the dispute between the two sides is whether the microphones of the two need to be muted during the debate. The Trump team believes that the rules of this debate should be similar to the debate with President Biden in June, that is, the microphones of both candidates should be muted when it is not the candidate's turn to speak. However, the Harris team disagreed and asked that the microphones be kept open throughout the debate. "We have told ABC and other news media seeking to hold the October debate that we believe the microphones of both candidates should remain open throughout the live broadcast." Brian Fallon, senior communications adviser to the Harris campaign, said, "Our understanding is that Trump's staff prefers muted microphones."
However, the Trump team said they could not accept Harris's latest demands, such as "seated debate" and "allowing to bring notes and cheat sheets." "Don't play games," said Miller, a senior adviser to Trump's campaign. "We will not change the agreed rules."
The latest "war of words" between Harris and Trump's team clearly indicates that this year's US election is becoming increasingly complicated. At the same time, both parties are currently facing the problem of "defection". Will the "October surprise" of the US election be staged in advance? The US presidential election is known as the "October surprise", which refers to the sudden occurrence of events that affect the election situation in the last month or so before the election.
With less than 14 days to go before his first debate with Harris, Trump received two heavyweight endorsements on the 23rd and 26th local time, from independent presidential candidate John F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard respectively.
On the 23rd, Kennedy Jr. expressed his support for Trump after officially announcing his withdrawal from this year's presidential election as an independent candidate. Kennedy Jr. is the son of the late U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John Kennedy. Kennedy initially submitted candidate documents for the Democratic nomination in April, but later switched to running as an independent candidate.
Former Congresswoman Gabbard has recently been helping Trump prepare for a televised debate with Harris next month. In 2020, Gabbard criticized Harris' experience as a prosecutor during the Democratic presidential debate. Soon after, Harris, who had been lagging behind in the polls, withdrew from the presidential election.
On the 26th, Trump praised Gabbard's military service in a speech before the annual meeting of the Michigan National Guard, emphasizing her rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and her multiple overseas deployments.
Gabbard said she was determined to do everything she could to get Trump into the White House because Trump's first priority was to prevent the United States from being involved in more wars.
More than 200 Republican aides who once worked for former U.S. President George W. Bush, the late Arizona Republican Senator McCain and Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney announced their support for Democrat Harris' presidential campaign in an open letter on the 25th.
These staff members include: Joe Donoghue, former legislative director of former Senator McCain; Jennifer Lux, press secretary of McCain's 2008 campaign team; and Jean Becker, former chief of staff to former US President George H.W. Bush. "For the first time, we have jointly announced that we will vote for Vice President Harris and Governor Waltz this November." Citing exit polls and other voter data from the 2020 election, the staff members said that in the last election, "moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states" played a key role in Biden's victory. In the letter, they called on the American people to "put the country far above party" and called on moderate Republicans and independents to "take a brave stand again."
Harris' campaign team has been emphasizing that they are getting support from the anti-Trump forces in the Republican Party. The latter also set up the "Republicans for Harris" group this month, and members of the group were invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention last month. For example, Republicans include former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Trump's former press secretary Stephanie Grishaml, former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, Mesa Mayor John Giles, and Vice President Pence's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Olivia Troye. Previously, former US Vice President Pence also said that he would not support Trump's campaign.