The Harris campaign said that it would be “happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to,” putting the two camps in an apparent debate stalemate.
Former President Donald Trump pulled out of the scheduled ABC debate and tried to push for a showdown on Fox News instead, drawing open derision from the Harris campaign and throwing into doubt whether any debates would take place in the general election.
In a post on Truth Social late Friday night, Trump wrote that the originally planned Sept. 10 debate on ABC was “terminated,” citing President Joe Biden ending his campaign and his legal conflicts with the network. Trump had previously agreed to the ABC debate in May — two months after filing his suit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos. ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis are set to moderate the Sept. 10 debate.
Instead of the planned ABC debate, the former president proposed a Sept. 4 debate on Fox News in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, specifying that Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would moderate and the showdown would take place “in an arena” — a deviation from the Trump-Biden debate in June, which had no live audience.
But Harris’ campaign did not agree to the proposed debate, instead saying in a Saturday morning statement that they would be “happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to,” putting the two camps in an apparent debate stalemate.
Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said: “Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th,” referencing Trump’s previous comments that he was prepared to debate “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.”
Tyler also wrote 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,” adding that the vice president would be on stage at the Sept. 10 debate as planned — “one way or another.”
A Harris campaign account on X poked fun at Trump’s reluctance to debate her in a meme on Saturday morning. Harris also responded directly to Trump’s refusal to participate in the ABC debate, confirming on X that she’ll “be there on September 10th, like he agreed to.”
But Trump doubled down on Saturday afternoon, writing in a string of posts on Truth Social: “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
Trump had been noncommittal about the ABC debate since Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, drawing mockery from the Harris campaign and some Democrats, who said that the former president was “afraid” of facing off against the former prosecutor.
The Democratic National Committee on Friday launched an ad campaign taunting Trump for his refusal to commit to a debate with Harris. A series of ads on the digital homepages of local news outlets where Trump plans to campaign in the next few weeks will say: “The convicted felon is afraid to debate.” The Harris campaign has been framing the debate as a showdown between Harris, a former prosecutor, and Trump, a convicted felon.
At a campaign rally in Atlanta last week, Harris brought up Trump’s reluctance to debate her, looking directly into the camera and goading her opponent: “Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider meeting me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, ‘If you got something to say, say it to my face.’”
Jared Mitovich contributed to this report.