Vice President Kamala Harris rejected a proposal by Republican opponent Donald Trump to debate her before a live audience on Fox News, saying she’s sticking to a previously scheduled date on ABC News.
Bloomberg reports the former president and 2024 Republican nominee began the latest round of verbal volleying late Friday with a social media post saying he’d “agreed with Fox News” to debate Harris on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania.
Harris’ campaign responded that Trump “is trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to” and she’ll “be there one way or the other” on ABC on Sept. 10 — a face-off agreed to by Trump and Joe Biden before the president ended his reelection bid.
The jockeying raises the possibility that US voters won’t see a debate between the two main candidates before the general election on Nov. 5. Instead, Trump and Harris might end up holding dueling televised town-hall-style events.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the previous agreement lapsed with Biden’s exit from the presidential race. He also cited a conflict of interest, saying he’s in litigation with ABC and anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Harris will “be there one way or the other” with ABC on Sept. 10, Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement Saturday. “We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to,” he said.
Trump agreed to the debate two months after filing a lawsuit against ABC News, according to a person familiar with the matter. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are the proposed debate hosts.
Trump said the Sept. 4 timing “is convenient and appropriate in that it is just prior” to the start of early voting in some states on Sept. 6.
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