CHAPIN, S.C. — Donald Trump has announced that he is pulling out of a September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC and wants them to face off on Fox News, making it increasingly unlikely that the candidates will square off on stage before the November election.
In a series of posts on Truth Social published last Friday, the Republican candidate and former president said his deal for a Sept. 10 debate on ABC “has been terminated” because he will no longer face Democratic President Joe Biden, who ended his campaign last month after a disastrous performance in their first debate.
Trump announced he would appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania, with rules he called “similar” to those of his debate with Biden, but with a full audience instead of a nearly empty studio. Trump said that if Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, did not agree to the new network and date, he would hold a “big town hall” with Fox News.
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Harris, said Trump “is scared and trying to get out of the debate he already agreed to participate in and is running straight to Fox News to save him.”
It’s not yet clear whether ABC will turn its Sept. 10 event into a town hall meeting with Harris in Trump’s absence. Tyler said Harris is committed to that time slot and appears to “one way or another seize the opportunity to speak to a national audience in prime time.”
In a subsequent post on Truth Social Saturday afternoon, Trump said of Harris: “I will see her on September 4th or I will not see her at all.”
Trump has had a heated exchange with Harris since she entered the presidential race. He told reporters he felt compelled to debate, but also said in a recent interview on Fox News that he thought Americans “already know everything” about both candidates. Harris has pressed Trump to follow through on a pledge he made when Biden was running. Noting Trump’s criticism of her, Harris recently challenged him to “tell me to my face.”
In his posts on Truth Social, Trump also cited his lawsuit against ABC News as a “conflict of interest” in his participation in the network’s debate show. Trump sued the network in March over a claim by host George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found “liable for rape.” A New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, but dismissed his claim that she had been raped.
But Trump agreed, two months after filing his complaint, to participate in the Sept. 10 debate on ABC, as well as the June 27 debate on CNN that helped eliminate Biden from the race. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are expected to moderate the ABC debate.
Trump has skipped debates before, including every debate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
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