Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) urged former President Trump to accept any rule changes that Vice President Harris's campaign proposes for the upcoming ABC News debate, stressing the importance of ensuring the debate takes place regardless.
Cruz, in a Monday night interview, pushed back on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s suggestion that Trump should not “give in” to demands from the Harris campaign to change the terms of the presidential debate slated for Sept. 10.
The senator and Hannity shared the view that the news outlet would be biased against the Republican nominee, but Cruz said Trump should do the debate regardless.
“Sean, I think Trump needs to do the debate," Cruz said in the interview. "And frankly, I think he should agree to whatever stupid rules they want. It's going to be hostile and rigged regardless."
“Kamala wants to pick this fight to have an excuse to get out of the debate. Don't let her out of the debate,” he later added. “We need her there because without a debate, her campaign will never answer a single question between now and Election Day, and that's their only hope of winning: is focus on joy and hopey, changey stuff and not her disastrous record.”
Questions have swirled in recent days over whether the ABC News presidential debate will take place as planned, as the candidates’ campaigns clash over rules governing muting microphones.
The rules were originally negotiated when President Biden led the Democratic ticket — before his disastrous first debate performance, which some pundits have argued was made worse by the muted mics. Had the mics not been muted, they added, the former president might have appeared less disciplined in his responses and Biden might not have trailed off as much in his.
Harris’s campaign is now pushing not to have the mics muted. Trump said Monday that it didn’t matter to him whether the microphones were muted, but he still raised questions about whether he would participate and attacked ABC News.
Cruz maintained his position, even when Hannity suggested that the GOP nominee make the case that the rules are set, and that Harris can either “accept a debate that you agreed to” or “walk away and hide.”
“Don't you think she ends up looking bad on that?” Hannity asked.
“Yeah, but you know what? I think she'd be happy to walk away from that,” Cruz said, adding that he would advise Trump to tell the Harris campaign to “come up with whatever stupid rules you want.”
“If you want her to wear a cheese head while she's debating, you want the mics hot or not, you want her to have an encyclopedia of talking points in front of her. I don't care," he continued. "I want to stand up directly and contrast her record and mine, because on every front, Donald Trump's record, we had success in this country."
The Hill has reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns, as well as to ABC News, for comment.
