Kamala Harris reveals if she’s ready to debate Trump in September
Advertisement
Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday she wants to stick to the debate the Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to before she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, accusing her opponent of “backtracking.”
Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Harris pointed out that Trump had previously agreed to the September confrontation, which was scheduled for Sept. 10 and hosted by ABC News.
“You’ve asked me about the debate and I’m going to tell you I’m ready to debate Donald Trump,” Harris said. “I agreed to the debate that was previously scheduled for September 10th. He agreed to it previously. Now he’s backed out, but I’m ready,” Harris asserted.
The vice president said voters deserve “the split screen that exists in this race” on a debate stage. “I’m ready. Let’s go!” she declared. After President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday, former President Donald Trump began pushing to move the second debate from ABC News to a more conservative network.
“Now that Joe has, unsurprisingly, dropped out of the race, I think the debate with whoever the radical left Democrats choose should be on Fox News instead of the highly biased ABC,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday night. Within 48 hours of Biden dropping out of the race, Harris had secured enough Democratic delegates to become the presumptive nominee.
In a call with reporters hosted by the Republican National Committee on Tuesday, Trump said he would “absolutely” debate Harris and even suggested there could be more than one debate. “I want to debate her, and she’s not going to be any different because they have the same policies,” Trump said. “I would actually be willing to have more than one debate.”
However, Trump said he was not “enthusiastic” about ABC News moderating it. Fox News Channel revealed Wednesday that it had contacted both campaigns about hosting a debate.
In a letter, Fox News President Jay Wallace proposed a debate on September 17 in the state of Pennsylvania, which is at stake. He noted that the debate would take place once early voting begins in the state. He also suggested that hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum could moderate the debate.
The first presidential debate on June 27, hosted by CNN in Atlanta, was seen as a turning point for Biden. His disastrous performance on primetime television led to growing concerns about his fitness for a second term. Several Democratic lawmakers began calling for the president to step aside amid questions about his ability to defeat Trump. Less than a month later, Biden withdrew from the race.
