Former President Donald Trump announced Friday night he will no longer participate in a debate against Vice President Kamala Harris Sept. 10.
Trump claimed that debate, in part, had a conflict of interest element since it was to be on ABC, the network Trump is currently suing along with anchor George Stephanopoulos, per Politico.
He added, however, a Sept. 4 debate on Fox News to take place in Pennsylvania, a battleground state, is in the works
Anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would moderate and the venue will be “in an arena”
“I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th,” Trump wrote. “The Debate was previously scheduled against Sleepy Joe Biden on ABC, but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant, and I am in litigation against ABC Network and George Slopadopoulos, thereby creating a conflict of interest.”
“… 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!….” he added.
Harris’ campaign did not agree to the new debate and said in a statement Saturday morning that they would be “happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to.”
“Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th,” Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said.
Tyler also said 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 added Harris would be at the Sept. 10 debate “one way or another.”
A Harris campaign posted on X, formerly Twitter, a meme Saturday morning, seemingly poking fun at Trump.
Harris also confirmed she’ll “be there on September 10th, like he agreed to.”
Trump’s posts on the matter continued Saturday afternoon as he wrote on Truth Social: “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
“Kamala Harris doesn’t have the mental capacity to do a REAL Debate against me, scheduled for September 4th in Pennsylvania,” he wrote. “She’s afraid to do it because there is no way she can justify her Corrupt and Open Borders, the Environmental Destruction of our Country, the Afghanistan Embarrassment, Runaway Inflation, Terrible Economy, High Interest Rates and Taxes, and her years long fight to stop the words, ‘Merry Christmas.’”
At a campaign rally in Atlanta last week, Harris talked about Trump’s unwillingness to debate her.
“Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider meeting me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, ‘If you got something to say, say it to my face.’”
