To mute or not to mute? The ongoing fight over the rules for the Trump-Harris debate.

Former President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he reached an agreement to participate in the upcoming presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. The debate will be hosted by ABC News on Sept. 10 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia at 9 p.m. ET and will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis.

There's been much back-and-forth over the debate, the first in which Trump and Harris will face off since she launched her campaign last month. Initially, Trump said he didn't want to participate in an ABC News-hosted debate, calling the network "by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business," despite his campaign agreeing to the date and the network in May.

But a big point of contention between the two campaigns has been over whether the candidates’ microphones should be muted when it isn't their turn to speak, which was the case during the CNN debate between President Biden and Trump.

What are the rules for the Sept. 10 debate?

While ABC News has not officially released its rules for the debate, on Tuesday, Trump said on Truth Social that they would be "the same as the last CNN debate" that took place between him and President Biden on June 27.

Those rules included no studio audience, no props or pre-written notes allowed on stage, no questions shared in advance and no campaign staff allowed to interact with the candidates during the commercial breaks. A coin flip determined the candidates’ podium positions.

However, neither ABC News nor the Harris campaign has publicly confirmed these rules.

What both campaigns have said about the mute button

Harris campaign senior adviser Brian Fallon said "both candidates' mics should be live throughout the full broadcast" in a statement to Politico on Monday.

Politico also reported that sources said the mute button was a point of contention between the two candidates. Fallon claimed the Harris campaign was fighting to keep the mics on throughout the debate, which would break from the rules set by CNN. Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, told Politico, “We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” contradicting what Fallon said.

During a campaign stop in Virginia on Monday, Trump echoed Miller and told reporters “the agreement was that it would be the same” as the CNN debate rules. Trump addressed the muted microphone issue by adding, “It doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on.”

Then, in a Truth Social post later that day, Trump doubled down on Miller’s point and accused Harris of wanting to “change the rules of the debate.”

The Harris campaign told the New York Times and NBC News on Tuesday night that the microphone situation is still under discussion.

The Democratic presidential campaign seems to have changed its tune about the microphone rules in the wake of both Biden's performance during the June debate on CNN and his decision to drop out of the race, ceding the ticket to Harris. In May, the Biden campaign said it would only accept an invitation to debate Trump if microphone muting was a rule.

Will there be other debates before the Nov. 5 election?

The Harris campaign said on Aug. 15 that both campaigns had agreed to three debates ahead of Election Day — two for Harris against Trump and one for the vice presidential nominees, Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance.

A date for the second presidential debate has not been set yet, but it is expected to be hosted by NBC News. The vice presidential debate will be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

In a Truth Social post from early August, Trump claimed he was dropping out of the ABC News debate and instead proposed a Sept. 4 debate hosted by Fox News. Fox News had originally proposed the idea in July but with a Sept. 17 date.

Trump argued that since the ABC debate was scheduled to be against Biden, who dropped out in late July, it should be "terminated." He added that since he's suing ABC News's George Stephanopoulos for defamation, the hosting would represent a "conflict of interest."

Less than a week later, Trump told reporters at a press conference that there were now three different presidential debates, including the one on Fox News on Sept. 4.

The Harris campaign responded that Harris would participate in two presidential debates. In a post from Aug. 19, Trump announced that "Harris has just informed us that she will not do the Fox News debate."

As of reporting, the Sept. 10 presidential and the Oct. 1 vice presidential debates are the only ones both campaigns have committed to.