Friday Former President Donald Trump said he would not participate in the ABC debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. He had originally agreed to debate President Joe Biden on the network.
Donald Trump said he will no longer participate in the September debate on ABC. He told Vice President Kamala Harris to move it to Fox News. The debate is scheduled to take place on Sept. 4.
The former president said the ABC debate was agreed upon before Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Trump also said the reason for the switch was an active defamation lawsuit against ABC and host George Stephanopoulos. However, that lawsuit was filed in March, and the Biden-Trump debate on ABC was announced in May.
Days after Biden dropped out, Fox News officially invited Trump and Harris to debate on its network.
The former president added that the debate would be held in Pennsylvania with a full audience.
The June debate between Trump and Biden was held in a CNN studio in Atlanta and did not include an audience.
Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris campaign, told NBC News: “Donald Trump is scared and trying to back out of a debate he’s already agreed to and is running straight to Fox News to bail him out. He must stop playing games and attend the debate he’s already committed to on September 10th.”
“The Vice President will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime-time national audience,” he added in the statement. “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.”
Is Trump afraid?
On Saturday, Kamala Harris tweeted:
It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space.’ I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
Her tweet referenced Trump’s refrain during debate talks with Biden that he would debate “any time, any place”
On Saturday afternoon, he criticized Harris and insisted that he would only debate on Fox.
“I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” the former president wrote in a Truth Social post.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said Trump was “too scared” to debate the vice president.
The crowd then cheered, chanting, “He’s scared. He’s scared. He’s scared.”
Trump later said, cockily
“I mean, right now I say why should I do a debate? I’m leading in the polls, and everybody knows her. Everybody knows me.”