Former President Donald Trump has announced that he is dropping out of ABC News debate scheduled for September 10 and instead, he has proposed an alternative debate with Vice President Kamala Harris to face off on Fox News on September 4, the New York Times reported.
Kamala Harris shared a post on X in response to Trump and stated that she’ll be there on September 10.
“It’s interesting how “any time, any place” becomes “one specific time, one specific safe space.” I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there,” Harris said on X.
The change, which Trump announced on his social media site, Truth Social, raised objections from the Harris campaign and appeared to throw a potential showdown between the rivals into question, as per the New York Times.
It also comes as Harris has made gains in national polling and appears to present a much stronger challenge to Trump on the debate stage than President Biden, who struggled to articulate a clear message in his faltering debate performance in June. Trump and his campaign also seem to be grappling with how to run against Harris after preparing for a race against Biden.
A campaign official for Vice President Kamala Harris has responded to former President Donald Trump’s debate proposal, suggesting that his offer to debate on Fox News is an attempt to divert attention from his decision to withdraw from the previously agreed-upon ABC News debate.
Trump had agreed to that debate in May, before Biden dropped out of the race and before Biden’s calamitous performance in a CNN debate on June 27.
“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” Michael Tyler, the communications director for the Harris campaign, said in a statement. “He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on September 10.”
Tyler said that the Harris campaign was open to discuss further debates if Trump honoured his commitment to the ABC debate.
“Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th,” he said.
It’s unclear whether ABC News will attempt to go ahead with its debate, giving time only to Harris. In a post on X on Saturday, Harris said: “I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
Trump responded on his social media platform with an ultimatum: “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
According to Trump’s post on his social media site, the Fox News debate would take place on September 4 at a to-be-determined location in Pennsylvania, one of the most consequential battleground states. The network’s anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would moderate.
Trump said on social media that the Fox News debate would have a live audience; the previous debate between him and Biden was hosted by CNN in an empty venue. Though both campaigns agreed to the format of the first debate, Trump had bemoaned the lack of a crowd.
He added that the rules would be similar to the CNN debate, though he did not specify which rules. The candidates’ microphones in the June debate were muted when it was not their turn to speak to prevent interruptions.
Trump also said that he was “totally prepared to accept” Harris as the Democrats’ new candidate. Since her campaign suddenly took shape after Biden dropped out of the race about two weeks ago, Trump has characterized her ascendancy as a “coup” within the Democratic Party. In his debate announcement, the former president complained about the shake-up.
“I spent hundreds of millions of dollars, time, and effort fighting Joe, and when I won the debate, they threw a new candidate into the ring,” Trump said on his social media site on Friday, adding that he hoped to tie Harris to Biden’s policies.
