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By Gabe Whisnant
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Former President Donald Trump told reporters in Virginia on Monday that he is not preparing for his September 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump, appearing at the Eden Center, the largest Vietnamese commercial center on the East Coast, was asked by a reporter, "How are you specifically preparing to debate Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee?"
The Republican nominee responded, "I'm not, really, I'm not. I'm not spending a lot of time on it. I think my whole life, I've been preparing for a debate...Basically, you have to be real. You can't cram 30 years of knowledge in your head in one week. There's a little debate prep, but I've always done it more or less the same way. You have to know your subject. And I think I know it better than anybody."
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When reached by Newsweek for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung reaffirmed Trump's comments and took aim at Harris' lack of sit-down interviews since entering the presidential race.
"As President Trump said, he's been preparing all his life and he regularly interacts with the press, which is a form of getting ready, something Comrade Kamala refuses to do," Cheung told Newsweek in an email Monday afternoon.
Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign via email Monday morning for comment.
As he talked about his lack of debate preparation on Monday morning, he also seemed to infer that 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was overly prepared for his debates against Democratic former President Barack Obama.
"You can have all sorts of sessions. I watched Mitt Romney go in...he worked so hard. He locked himself in a log cabin for four weeks, and he developed lock jaw. He couldn't speak," Trump said.
Romney prepared for the debates in September 2012 in Vermont's Green Mountains. It was widely accepted that Romney performed better than Obama in their first debate in October 2012, while Obama was stronger in the last two debates between the candidates.
Harris emerged as the Democratic nominee when President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July. Biden faced pressure to step aside following a widely criticized debate performance against Trump that fueled concerns about his age and as polls showed him trailing in battleground states.
Harris's campaign team recently said they do not want muted microphones at the September 10 ABC News-hosted debate. Muted microphones were used in the first presidential debate of 2024, a CNN-hosted clash between president Biden and Trump.
Brian Fallon, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, told Newsweek that there is a dispute between the two campaigns over whether microphones should be live because Trump could not remain disciplined for 90 minutes.
"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," Fallon said.
"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."
On Monday morning, Trump was asked about the debate format and rules, specifically the muted mics rule. Muted microphones were used in the first presidential debate of 2024, a CNN-hosted clash between Biden and Trump.
Trump is known for making frequent interruptions in presidential debates. In 2020, he interrupted Biden 71 times, leading to Biden retorting "will you shut up, man?"
In 2016, Trump faced criticism for repeatedly speaking over Hillary Clinton, interjecting "wrong!" and at one point interrupting her outlining her position on Social Security by calling her "such a nasty woman."
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Trump responded Monday that the debate rules established for his debate with Biden on CNN should stand for the scheduled debate with ABC.
"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 last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn't like it the last time, but it worked out fine. Ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine. And I think it should be the same," he said. "We agreed to the same rules. The same rules and same specifications. And I think that's probably what it should be," he said.
What the Harris campaign is saying: The Harris campaign believes the debate issue is "resolved" following Trump's comments, a top spokesperson said Monday.
On MSNBC Monday, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said that he thinks this issue is "resolved" and there will be live microphones during the debate, contrary to Trump's comments to reporters in Virginia.
"Unless Donald Trump allows his handlers to overrule him, we'll have a fulsome debate between the two candidates with live microphones, where both candidates will be able to lay out their vision for where they want to take this country," he said.
Tyler continued on MSNBC that it was "absolutely" the Harris campaign's preference to have microphones on live throughout the debate "so that the American people can see both candidates for who they are." The Harris campaign believes Trump will "interject, he'll rant, he'll rave, he'll air his own personal grievances."
Later Monday, Harris spokesman Ian Sams told CNN's Alex Marquardt that "we've settled this" since Trump said, "I don't know, it doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on," during his remarks about the debate mics in Virginia.
When pressed by Marquardt if the Harris campaign has heard from the Trump campaign that the microphones will remain on, Sams replied, "Well, we've heard from the horse's mouth. We've heard him say he's happy to do that."
Trump also continued to question whether he should debate Harris on ABC News, a network he considers "FAKE NEWS."
He told reporters Monday morning that he would rather debate Harris on another network and listed NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News.
Harris declined Trump's earlier proposal for a debate on Fox News on September 4. Tyler said in a statement that the vice president's team plans to participate in three debates this election season, including a second debate against Trump sometime in October.
Harris received an expected boost from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago last week, but Trump is still polling well as surveys continue to point to a close election in November.
FiveThirtyEight's polling aggregate showed Harris with a 3.4-point lead on Monday. This marks a notable improvement from Biden's standing.
However, most pollsters have not released surveys of the battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—since the DNC began, so it remains unclear how the race for victory in those states may be affected by the convention.
Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery Monday morning to join family members of the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan. Later on Monday, Trump is scheduled to speak in Detroit to about 4,000 National Guard officers, spouses and other attendees of the 2024 National Guard Association of the United States General Conference & Exhibition.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will launch a bus tour across South Georgia on Wednesday, which concludes with a rally Thursday night in Savannah.
Update 8/26/24, 6:50 p.m. ET: This article was updated with more information.
Update 8/26/24, 3:13 p.m. ET: This article was updated with a comment from Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung.
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