Team Harris had 'planned' on unmuted mics, left 'scrambling to rewrite' debate strategy: report

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Trump, Harris make final preparations ahead of first face-to-face debate

Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams reports on where things stand in the 2024 presidential race on 'Special Report.'

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign team was reportedly left "scrambling" to rework their debate strategy after losing their bid to change the rules on microphones.

Former President Trump and Harris will face off for the first time on Tuesday in Philadelphia, in a debate moderated by ABC News. While the Harris campaign had insisted on moving forward with the debate as previously negotiated between the Biden and Trump Teams, it appears they were expecting the rules to change to make the microphones live throughout the event. 

"Kamala Harris had planned to object, fact-check and directly question Donald Trump while he was speaking during their debate next week," Politico reported on Friday. "But now, with rules just finalized to mute the candidates when their opponents speaks, campaign officials said Harris advisers are scrambling to rewrite their playbook."

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)

TRUMP, HARRIS CAMPAIGNS CLASH OVER DEBATE RULES: ‘WE SAID NO CHANGES’

The Harris campaign, according to the report, had wanted un-muted microphones "so that the vice president could lean on her prosecutorial background, confronting the former president in the same way she laced into some of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees and Cabinet members during Senate hearings."

Four of her own campaign officials now reportedly claim that she will be "handcuffed" by the rules set by her predecessor.

Some Democratic strategists said the debate terms were bad from the start.

One told Politico, "It was a bad set of rules for someone [Biden] who needed to be protected, who never should’ve been on the debate stage. And now they’re stuck with it."

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump departs a campaign event at the Central Wisconsin Airport on September 07, 2024 in Mosinee, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Democratic strategist James Carville, by contrast, suggested the rules don’t tip the scales either way. 

"[Trump] won’t be able to do his shenanigans either," he said. "So it seems kind of like a wash to me."

The same report also claimed, "Some Democrats privately dismiss the Harris campaign’s frustration as largely gamesmanship and expectation-setting around Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia."

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller reportedly expressed joy on behalf of the campaign that Harris "finally accepted the already agreed-upon rules of the debate that they wrote in the first place," later adding, "Americans want to hear both candidates present their competing visions to the voters, unburdened by what has been. No notes, no sitting down, no advance copies of the questions."

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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Harris' campaign had repeatedly pushed back on the rule about microphones, trying to goad Trump into backing out of the original agreement to mute mics, even initially refusing to sign off on the rules in an attempt to renegotiate. 

The campaign sent a letter to the network last week officially agreeing to the original debate rules while still complaining about the terms.

"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. We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones," the letter read.

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Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.