CHAPIN, S.C.: Donald Trump has announced his withdrawal from a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC, expressing a preference for the debate to take place on Fox News instead. This move casts doubt on the likelihood of the candidates meeting on stage before the November election.
In a sequence of posts on Truth Social late Friday, the Republican nominee and ex-president declared that his commitment to the September 10 debate on ABC is nullified, citing the cessation of Democratic President Joe Biden’s campaign following a poor showing in their initial debate.
Trump has announced he will appear on Fox News on September 4 in Pennsylvania under rules “similar” to his debate with Biden, but this time before a full audience. He stated that if Harris, the probable Democratic nominee, does not consent to the new network and date, he will conduct a “major Town Hall” on Fox News.
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Harris, remarked that Trump is “running scared and attempting to back out of the debate he already agreed to, seeking refuge with Fox News.” It was not immediately clear whether ABC would turn its Sept. 10 event into a Harris town hall in Trump’s absence. Tyler said Harris is committed to the time slot and would appear “one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience.”
In a subsequent Truth Social post on Saturday afternoon, Trump said of Harris, “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
Trump has gone back and forth on debating with Harris since she entered the presidential race. He had told reporters he felt an obligation to debate but also said in a recent Fox News interview that he thought Americans “already know everything” about both candidates Harris has pressed Trump to keep the commitment he made when Biden was in the race. Noting Trump’s criticisms of her, Harris dared him recently to “say it to my face.”
In his Truth Social posts, Trump also cited his litigation against ABC News as “a conflict of interest” in his participation in the network’s debate. Trump sued the network in March following an assertion by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found “liable for rape.” A New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll but rejected her claim that she was raped.
But Trump agreed, two months after filing his lawsuit, to the Sept. 10 debate on ABC, as well as the June 27 debate on CNN that helped knock Biden out of the race. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are set to be ABC’s debate moderators.
Trump has skipped debates before, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.
(With AP inputs)
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