Cruz presses Trump to agree to 'whatever stupid rules' Harris's campaign wants for debate,

 Sen. Ted Cruz called on former President Trump to accept whatever changes to the rules that Vice President Harris's campaign wants in an upcoming ABC News debate, stressing the need to make sure that the debate takes place.

Cruz, in an interview on Monday night, pushed back against Fox News host Sean Hannity's suggestion that Trump shouldn't "give in" into the demands of the Harris campaign to change the terms of the presidential debate set for Sept. 10.

Hannity, to his credit, pushed Cruz a bit on this point, and the senator conceded that ABC News would be biased against the Republican nominee. But Cruz added that Trump should do the debate anyway, because it would be "hostile and rigged" no matter what.

"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 said. "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."

In recent days, questions have swirled about whether the ABC News presidential debate will go off as planned thanks to the campaigns having their latest dust-up over rules governing muting microphones.

The rules were first negotiated when President Biden led the Democratic ticket—before his disastrous first debate performance, which some pundits have argued was made bad by the muted mics. They added that had the mics not been muted, the former president might have seemed 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 if the mics are cut, but he also continued wondering aloud whether he would participate and again bashed ABC News.

Hannity, to his credit, pushed Cruz a bit on this point, and the senator conceded that ABC News would be biased against the Republican nominee. But Cruz added that Trump should do the debate anyway, because it would be "hostile and rigged" no matter what.

"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 said. "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."

In recent days, questions have swirled about whether the ABC News presidential debate will go off as planned thanks to the campaigns having their latest dust-up over rules governing muting microphones.

The rules were first negotiated when President Biden led the Democratic ticket—before his disastrous first debate performance, which some pundits have argued was made bad by the muted mics. They added that had the mics not been muted, the former president might have seemed 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 if  the mics are cut, but he also continued wondering aloud whether he would participate and again bashed ABC News.