CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump announced he will skip a September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that would be held on ABC and said he wants them to face off in a debate on Fox News, making it increasingly unlikely that the candidates will face off on stage before the November presidential election.
In a series of posts on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday night, the Republican presidential candidate and former US president said his agreement to attend a Sept. 10 debate on ABC “has been terminated” as he will no longer face Democratic President Joe Biden, who ended his re-election bid last month following a disastrous showing in their first debate.
Trump said he will now appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania under rules he said are “similar” to those in place for his debate with Biden, but with an audience present rather than an empty studio. Trump said that if Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, does not agree to the new network and date, he will hold a “major” town hall with Fox News.
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Harris, said Trump “is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he had already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out.”
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 “in one way or another to take advantage of the opportunity to speak to a national audience in prime time.”
In a subsequent Truth Social post on Saturday afternoon, Trump said of Harris: “I will see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
Trump has gone back and forth about debating Harris since she entered the presidential race. He had told reporters he felt an obligation to debate, but also said in a recent interview on Fox News that he thought Americans “already know everything” about both candidates. Harris has pushed Trump to keep the commitment he made when Biden was on the ticket. Taking note of Trump’s criticism of her, Harris recently challenged him to “tell me to my face.”
In his Truth Social posts, Trump also mentioned the accusation he has made against ABC News that they have a “conflict of interest” surrounding his participation in the network’s debate. Trump sued the network in March after host George Stephanopoulos claimed Trump had been found “liable for rape.” A New York jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting columnist E. Jean Carroll, but rejected her claim that she had been raped.
But Trump agreed, two months after filing his lawsuit, to attend the Sept. 10 ABC debate, as well as the June 27 CNN debate that helped knock Biden out of the race. Davir Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the ABC debate.
Trump has skipped debates in the past, including all of the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
