Donald Trump announced late Friday night that he has accepted an offer from Fox News to debate Kamala Harris in September.
The former president said in a Truth Social post the debate would be held in Pennsylvania on Sept. 4 and hosted by Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
Harris has wanted Trump to stick to the scheduled Sept. 10 debate on ABC News which was originally slated to be a showdown between Trump and President Biden.
The ex-president had previously agreed to the ABC News debate. But following Harris’ ascension to Democratic nominee for president after Biden dropped out of the race, Trump has complained that it would not be “fair.”
Trump also claimed Friday that his ongoing litigation against the ABC and anchor George Stephanopoulos has created a “conflict of interest” with the network.
“I spent Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, Time, and Effort fighting Joe, and when I won the Debate, they threw a new Candidate into the ring. Not fair, but it is what it is! Nevertheless, different Candidate or not, their bad Policies are the same, and this will be strongly revealed at the September 4th Debate,” Trump railed in the Truth Social post.
He said “the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe” but this debate would include “A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE” at a to-be-announced venue.
Trump’s campaign said previously that it would not finalize debate plans until Harris was formally declared the Democratic nominee.
In a statement posted to X Saturday, Team Harris refused to say whether she would agree to the Fox News showdown.
“We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to. Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th,” she said in the post, falsely asserting that Trump had previously agreed to debate her.
Trump responded later Saturday that Harris “doesn’t have the mental capacity” to face him.
“I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” he said.
Harris on Friday secured enough votes to secure her nomination — despite never winning a primary.
Trump has boasted for weeks about his victory over Biden after the president’s abysmal performance at their debate in June, which ultimately led to a movement within the Democratic party to get the 81-year-old president off the ticket.
Harris on Tuesday publicly taunted Trump at a campaign event for backing out of the Sept. 10 debate.
“Here’s the funny thing about that: So he won’t debate, but he and his running mate sure seemed to have a lot to say about me,” she said. “
“I do hope you’ll reconsider and meet me on the debate stage, because, as the saying goes, ‘if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!’” she added, to raucous cheers from the audience.
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