"She's not a smart person," Donald Trump remarked today about Kamala Harris. If she's trying to get out of the debate with Trump, she's at least smarter than Joe Biden and those who went ahead with the first presidential debate.

Let's back up for a moment. Shortly after getting anointed as the Democrat nominee, Harris began badgering Trump to stick to the agreement to debate on September 10 on ABC News on the same terms as he'd agreed with Biden. The next day, Trump accepted despite his reasonable objection earlier that the agreement he'd had was with Biden, not  Harris, and that the two campaigns should negotiate a new agreement on debates. Harris eventually agreed to a second debate but refused a third on Fox News Channel. 

Now, however, Harris and her campaign have second thoughts. Despite insisting that the Biden agreement bound Trump to the ABC debate on September 10, the campaign now wants the rules changed. Now they want the microphones left on, and other changes:

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, tells POLITICO. “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.” 

Ahem. It was the Biden team that wanted the mics cut off, a questionable strategy even at that time. Trump wanted them left on, but it played out well for him and left Biden without any victimization claims at the end for his disastrous performance. 

We'll get back to that point momentarily. The Trump campaign revealed just how far Team Kamala wanted to go in renegotiating rules for the debate:

“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate. The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements. We said no changes to the agreed upon rules,” Jason Miller, senior adviser for Trump told Playbook last night. “If Kamala Harris isn’t smart enough to repeat the messaging points her handlers want her to memorize, that’s their problem. This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign. They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate. My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump.”

That brings us to Trump's statement earlier today. Contra Fallon, Trump was very well apprised of the situation and grasps it better than Fallon thinks. Trump can take or leave the microphone rule, he explains, but the real issue is that Kamala doesn't want to debate. Either that, or her campaign doesn't, and for good reason:

Trump just now on the muted mics during the debate:

“We agreed to the same rules. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn't like it the last… pic.twitter.com/yY0smQjrkK

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 26, 2024

“We agreed to the same rules. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn't like it the last time, but it worked out fine. I mean, ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine, and I think it should be the same. We agreed to the same rules, same rules, and same specifications, and I think that's probably what it should be, but they're trying to change it. The truth is they're trying to get out of it because she doesn't want to debate. She's not a good debater. She's not a smart person. She doesn't want to debate.”

The impulse behind the rule change for the mics is pretty easy to understand. As I wrote earlier, muting Trump during Harris' answers would force Harris to offer coherent and cogent explanations of her positions, something Harris won't even do in campaign speeches so far, let alone under adversarial conditions. Her team wants Trump to be able to badger her so she can complain about being interrupted and change the subject, as she did against Mike Pence four years ago (video via Daily Wire):

FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris melted down in 2020 VP debate against Mike Pence:

“I’m speaking…I’m speaking”

This woman is so easily rattled. pic.twitter.com/AR95Sps1TE

— Cryptid Politics (pro-DeSantis) 🇺🇸🐊 (@CryptidPolitics) July 23, 2024

That explains the one rule change demand, perhaps. But why demand to be seated, and why demand notes? These look like demands posed for a different purpose, when seen in totality. (For one thing, even Biden's team didn't demand those, even though Biden clearly could have used both.) These look like attempts to toss obstacles into the process to derail the debates, and that impression is fortified by Harris' refusal to answer questions about policy or performance on the record under any circumstances, no matter how adversarial or not the event might be.

I'd guess that the Harris campaign is a concession away from declaring that sharing a stage with "a convicted felon" is beneath the dignity of her office. Team Kamala and/or the candidate are now running scared, and they're hoping to get the media to cover their retreat by blaming Trump for debate cancellations.