CONWAY, SOUTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 10: Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump mocks U.S. President Joe Biden while speaking during a Get Out The Vote rally at Coastal Carolina University on February 10, 2024 in Conway, South Carolina. South Carolina holds its Republican primary on February 24. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump announced that he would not debate Vice President Kamala Harris as planned in an ABC debate but instead has scheduled his own debate with Fox News.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump announced that he would not attend the planned ABC debate and has scheduled a debate with Fox News. This has further increased the probability that the candidates will not formally debate ahead of the November election.
The ABC debate, which Trump pulled out of, is planned for Sept. 10, while the Fox News debate that Trump announced is set to take place on Sept. 4 with similar rules to the debate he attended alongside President Joe Biden. Trump announced that the Fox News debate will have a full studio audience, unlike the mostly empty studio where Biden and Trump debated.
Trump told his followers that if Harris does not agree to the new debate terms, he will use the event as a “major town hall.” It is currently unclear if ABC will use the debate as a town hall for Harris if Trump does not attend.
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Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Harris, said that 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.” Tyler also said that Harris is committed to the ABC debate and plans to attend “one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime-time national audience.”
Trump responded to these comments on Truth Social, writing, “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
The former president cited his legal proceedings against ABC as a “conflict of interest” because he sued the network in March following a comment by an ABC anchor saying that Trump was “liable for rape.” He also claimed that the network is biased against him.
There has been some back-and-forth regarding whether or not Trump will debate Harris. He told Fox News that he thinks that voters “already know everything” about the candidates but has also announced that he feels an obligation to debate.
Trump was committed to the ABC debate against Biden even after the lawsuit was filed.
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