to interrupt or not to interrupt during the great debate, this detail which could harm Donald Trump

Two weeks before the big debate, which is supposed to pit Kamala Harris against Donald Trump on September 10 on ABC, fear seems to have changed sides. The cause is the management of the microphones on the set, which allow the debaters’ comments to be heard.

During the first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the incumbent president suffered considerably from his opponent’s untimely interruptions.Will you shut up, man“(“Shut up, man“), Joe Biden finally let slip, exasperated. For the following debate, the technical teams were then forced to take an exceptional measure, that of turning off the microphones to avoid comments. This ultimately did not prevent the catastrophe linked to the physical condition of the Democratic candidate.

Now Kamala Harris has entered the race, and she wants Donald Trump to be able to express himself as he pleases and when he wants. In reality, she hopes to give her opponent the opportunity to sabotage himself, by being particularly odious with a woman, a black woman at that. She is thus betting on the counterproductive effect of remarks that would be perceived as sexist or with racial connotations, among the female or minority electorate.

But the calculation is not without risk. In 2016, Donald Trump had abundantly interrupted, and in a very disrespectful way, his opponent at the time, Hillary Clinton. This did not prevent him from winning the election. But Kamala Harris also remembers another debate, which she led against the Republican Mike Pence in 2020. She had reacted coldly but with dignity to her opponent’s interruptions and the video had gone viral, denouncing at the time a fine example of “mansplaining” (feminist concept born in the 2010s, to designate a situation where a man explains to a woman something she already knows). A sequence that the Democrats had even made mugs and t-shirts out of, and which helped to build the personality of the vice president.

For this upcoming debate, Donald Trump said yesterday that he would prefer that the microphones remain open, but his campaign team has been campaigning for several days to keep the rule from last June: microphone cut between interventions. A big gap, then, between the candidate and his staff, which happens often. Donald Trump especially castigated the ABC channel, organizer of the debate, which according to him, is biased. And he leaves doubt hanging over the very maintenance of the event.

He also claims that he is not spending much time preparing for this debate. “No need, I know my subject better than anyone”he said, convinced that Kamala Harris is not ready to face journalists’ questions, and especially to face him. But in fact, the Republican candidate is struggling to adapt to his new opponent in full swing, he who was so sure of beating Joe Biden. The debate of September 10, if it is maintained, will be decisive in this respect.