Vice President Kamala Harris shot down former President Donald Trump’s request to debate on Fox News, which has been scheduled for roughly a week before the originally set ABC News debate.
Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, announced in a Truth Social post Saturday that he agreed to a debate on Fox News with Ms. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania with a full arena audience.
“The Fox News Debate will be held in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at a site in an area to be determined,” he said. “The Moderators of the Debate will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his Party — BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!”
Ms. Harris scoffed at the newly planned debate in an X post on Saturday.
“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space.’ I’ll be there on Sept. 10, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there,” she wrote.
The ABC News debate is scheduled to take place Sept. 10, but Mr. Trump says that debate is void since it was originally for him and President Biden. It also was not going to have a live audience, and would’ve had mic muting and no pre-written notes.
He also says that since he is “in litigation against ABC Network and George Slopadopoulos,” a debate on the network creates a conflict of interest. He is suing the network and Mr. Stephanopoulos for defamation after the show host said Mr. Trump “raped” E. Jean Carroll during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican.
A jury found Mr. Trump liable in 2023 for sexually abusing and defaming Ms. Carroll in a civil case, but the former president has not been found guilty of rape in a criminal court.
Harris spokesperson Michael Tyler said Mr. 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.”
“He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on Sept. 10,” Mr. Tyler said. “The vice president will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime-time national audience.”
There has been quite some back-and-forth between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump over debate plans. Ms. Harris has been pushing for a debate, but Mr. Trump has said he doesn’t want to debate her until the Democratic Party makes her its actual nominee.
Ms. Harris secured the nomination on Friday during a virtual vote with thousands of Democratic delegates that officially locked her in as the party’s nominee.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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