Vice President Kamala Harris is accusing former President Donald Trump of avoiding debating her — while also avoiding a debate against him. In May, Trump agreed to two debates against President and then-presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the first to be hosted by CNN and the second by ABC. The CNN debate took place on June 27 and reportedly led to Biden being pressured by his own party to retire his reelection campaign.
The debate hosted by ABC was initially scheduled for September 10, but once Biden dropped out of the race, Trump’s team announced that they would not be scheduling further debates until the Democrats had officially selected a nominee at their convention in late August. “Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee,” the Trump campaign said in a July 25 statement. “Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”
Harris immediately began criticizing Trump, alleging that he was “backing out” of debate agreements and asking on social media, “What happened to ‘any time, any place’?”
In a Truth Social post late Friday night, Trump clarified that he would be open to a debate against Harris if it were hosted by Fox News. “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 Slopadopoulos, thereby creating a conflict of interest,” the former president explained, referring to his defamation lawsuit against ABC News after Stephanopoulos insisted on air that Trump is a rapist.
Trump said that the Fox News-hosted debate would take place in Pennsylvania with anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum moderating. He had teased a similar prospect in May, when his opponent was Biden. Although Fox News has not been as openly hostile towards Trump as ABC, the former president noted that “the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his Party — BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!”
In a Saturday morning statement, the Harris campaign rejected Trump’s suggestion of a debate hosted by Fox News, preferring instead the news outlet currently involved in litigation for allegedly defaming Trump. “Donald 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,” the Harris team claimed, calling Trump “Mr. Anytime, anywhere, any place,” referring to a comment Trump made about debating Biden, not Harris. “He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on [September] 10. The Vice President will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime-time national audience.”
“Kamala Harris doesn’t have the mental capacity to do a REAL Debate against me,” Trump fired back over Truth Social. He continued, “She’s afraid to do it because there is no way she can justify her Corrupt and Open Borders, the Environmental Destruction of our Country, the Afghanistan Embarrassment, Runaway Inflation, Terrible Economy, High Interest Rates and Taxes, and her years long fight to stop the words, ‘Merry Christmas.’ I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
In an interview last week, Trump said that he would “probably end up debating” Harris. Referring to the vice president’s far-left policies, a frequent subject of his campaign ads, Trump also stated, “I want to do a debate, but I also can say this: everybody knows who I am, and now people know who she is.”
Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has accused Harris of “hiding” from the media, noting that she has not done a single interview since Biden dropped out of the race. “She’s fine if you put her in front of the teleprompter and tell her what to say. But she actually has to answer questions based purely on her own knowledge and interest in policy. Then it becomes a bit of a disaster,” Vance told Breitbart News, saying that Harris has “basically pursued a strategy of hiding from the press in the hope that people don’t realize how ill prepared she is and how bad her ideas are for the country.”
Vance also emphasized that he’s ready to debate whomever Harris selects as her running mate. “Certainly, I think we should debate. I’d love to have a robust debate. I expect that we will,” the senator said, quipping, “I really don’t care who” Harris chooses as her vice presidential nominee. “My role here is to prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and remind people that President Trump was a good president who deserves a second term,” Vance concluded.
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
