ATLANTA: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed to debate Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox News on September 4, but the Harris campaign countered that Trump was trying to back out of a debate that had already been set to run on ABC.
The rules would be similar to the first debate with President Joe Biden, who has since dropped his reelection bid, Trump said in a post on Truth Social late on Friday.
But this time it would have a “full arena audience” and take place in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump said.
Trump and Biden had agreed to a second debate on September 10 on ABC News, which the former president had suggested should be moved to Fox, the most popular network with his followers.
Harris, who on Friday secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for the November 5 election, said on Saturday she plans to participate in the originally planned debate.
“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space,’” she wrote on social media platform X.
“I’ll be there on Sept. 10, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
Harris spokesperson Michael Tyler said Trump was “running scared” and that her campaign was happy to discuss further debates after the Sept. 10 one that “both campaigns have already agreed to.”
Trump agrees to Fox News debate with Harris on Sept 4
On Saturday, Trump said on Truth Social that Harris is “afraid to do it” and that he will see her on Sept. 4, “or, I won’t see her at all.”
Both candidates have been crisscrossing the country aggressively, with Trump trying out fresh lines of attack against Harris, who some polls show is in a virtual dead heat with the former president.
At a rally in Atlanta on Saturday night, Trump attacked Harris’ character and the policies she has promoted as vice president, and he continued to raise questions about her racial identity.
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