Donald Trump has finally agreed to debate Vice President Kamala Harris — but only on traditionally Trump-friendly Fox News, not on ABC as originally planned.
The Harris campaign quickly fired back in a statment on X that the former president is "running scared ... and running straight to Fox News to bail him out."
Our statement on Donald Trump backing out of the debate he already agreed to pic.twitter.com/r8VrZRI0q8
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 3, 2024
Harris mocked on her own X account: "It's interesting how [Trump's vow to debate] 'any time, any place' becomes 'one specific time, one specific safe space.'" She added: "I'll be there on September 10th [on ABC], like he agreed to. I hope to see him there."
Trump presented his own new scheme as already set in stone in a post on his social media platform. He claimed that the planned ABC debate has been "terminated" because President Joe Biden is no longer a candidate for the White House.
His planned debate will be held Sept. 4 at a site to be determined in Pennsylvania to a "full arena," and moderators will be Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
Trump said he cannot debate Harris on ABC because he is suing ABC and host George Stephanopoulos — calling the journalist "George Slopadopulous" in his post — and it would therefore be a "conflict of interest."
I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th. 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…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) August 3, 2024
The rules will be "similar" to those for Trump's debate with Biden in June, Trump noted, which included no on-air fact checking. CNN later listed on its website scores of times Trump lied in the debate.
That debate was so disastrous for Biden that he dropped out of the race.
