CHAPIN, SC — Donald Trump says he’s withdrawing from a debate with the Vice President scheduled for September Kamala Harris on ABC and plans to pit the 2 against one another on Fox News, making it increasingly unlikely that the 2 candidates will face off on stage before the November election.
In a series of Truth Social posts late Friday, the Republican candidate and former president said his agreement to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC had been “revoked” because he would now not run against the Democratic president. Joe Bidenwho ended his campaign last month after a disastrous lead to their first debate.
Trump now says he’ll appear on Fox News in Pennsylvania on Sept. 4, with rules much like his debate with Biden, but in front of a full audience reasonably than an almost empty studio. Trump said if Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, doesn’t comply with the brand new network and date, he’ll hold a “big town hall meeting” with Fox News.
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Harris, said Trump “is scared and trying to get out of the debate he already agreed to and is running straight to Fox News to bail him out.”
It was not immediately clear whether ABC would turn its Sept. 10 event right into a Harris town hall in Trump's absence. Tyler said Harris is tied to the time slot and can “take advantage of the opportunity to speak to a national audience in prime time, one way or another.”
In a subsequent Truth Social post on Saturday afternoon, Trump said of Harris: “Either I see her on September 4th or I don't see her at all.”
Trump has been on and off about whether to debate Harris since she entered the presidential race. He had told reporters he felt obligated to debate, but additionally said in a recent interview with Fox News that he believed Americans “already knew everything” about each candidates. Harris urged Trump to maintain the pledge he made when Biden was within the race. Harris noted Trump's criticism of her and dared to do it recently to inform me “to my face”.
In his Truth Social posts, Trump also referred to his legal dispute with ABC News as a “conflict of interest” related to his participation within the network's debate. Trump sued the network in March after moderator George Stephanopoulos claimed that Trump had been “found guilty of rape.” New York jury found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, but denied her claim that she was raped.
But Trump agreedtwo months after filing his lawsuit, to the Sept. 10 debate on ABC and the June 27 debate on CNN that helped knock Biden out of the race. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are scheduled to be ABC's debate moderators.
Trump has skipped debates before, including all debates of the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.
Associated Press author Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
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You can reach Kinnard at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.
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