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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed to debate Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox News on Sept. 4.
But, the Harris campaign countered that Trump was trying to back out of a debate that had already been set to run on ABC.
The rules would be similar to the first debate with President Joe Biden, who has since dropped from the race and endorsed Harris , Trump said in a post on Truth Social. At first he wrote that the debate would have a “full arena audience” and take place in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Later he reposted without the “full arena audience” note.
Trump and Biden had agreed to a second debate on Sept. 10 on ABC News. In his Friday post on Truth Social, Trump said the ABC debate had been “terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant” and because he himself was in litigation with ABC.
Harris, who on Friday secured the delegate votes needed for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 5 election, said on Saturday she plans to participate in the originally planned debate.
“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space,'” she wrote on social media platform X. “I’ll be there on Sept. 10, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
Harris spokesperson Michael Tyler said Trump was “running scared” and that her campaign was happy to discuss further debates after the Sept. 10 one that “both campaigns have already agreed to.”
On Saturday, Trump said on Truth Social that Harris is “afraid to do it” and that he will see her on Sept. 4, “or, I won’t see her at all.”
Both candidates have been crisscrossing the country aggressively, with Trump trying out fresh lines of attack against Harris, who some polls show is in a virtual dead heat with the former president.
At a rally in Atlanta on Saturday night, Trump attacked Harris’ character and the policies she has promoted as vice president, and he continued to raise questions about her racial identity.
On Thursday, Trump had falsely suggested to the country’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists that Harris had downplayed her Black heritage. Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, has long self-identified as both Black and Asian.
Trump, speaking at the same stadium where Harris held a rally on Tuesday, said on Saturday that there were “19 different ways” of pronouncing Harris’ first name, while also calling her a “lunatic” with a “low IQ.” Before Trump took the stage, his campaign displayed an article on a large screen referring to Harris as the “first Indian-American senator.”
Trump’s aggressive performance is contrary to the advice of some senior Republicans who have called on him to avoid attacks on Harris’ identity and gender.
Recent polls show a tight contest between Harris and Trump.
Recently, the Democratic National Committee launched an advertising campaign taunting Trump by saying “the convicted felon is afraid to debate”.
