Trump Accepts Debate with Kamala Harris in Packed Arena

(LibertySociety.com) – Republican nominee Donald Trump announced last Friday that he accepted an invitation from Fox News to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on September 4, an invitation the Harris campaign has so far refused to accept.

Trump withdrew from the planned Trump/Biden debate scheduled to air on ABC News on September 10 after the president dropped out of the presidential race. However, the Harris campaign expected to have the vice president replace Biden at the ABC News debate and accused Trump of being a coward for withdrawing.

In a series of posts on Truth Social last Friday, Trump said the September 10 debate with Biden had been “terminated” since the president withdrew from the race.

Trump said that the Fox News debate would have rules “similar” to those the Biden campaign required for the two debates the president scheduled with Trump. The only difference was the Fox debate would not be in a studio but in a Pennsylvania arena with a live audience.

Moderators for the Fox debate would be anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, Trump said.

In a subsequent post, Trump said that if the vice president did not agree to attend the Fox debate, he would hold a “major Town Hall” instead.

Michael Tyler, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, accused the former president of “running scared” by backing out of the ABC debate he agreed to do with President Biden. Tyler claimed that Trump was “running” to Fox News hoping the network would “bail him out.”

In a post on X, Vice President Harris blasted Trump for reneging on his vow to debate Biden “any time, anywhere,” by refusing to debate her on ABC News. She dismissed the Fox News invitation and said she would show up at the ABC debate on September 10 with or without Trump.

ABC News offered to give the 90 minutes of airtime set aside for the debate to whichever presidential candidate shows up.

In his post on Truth Social, Trump also pointed out the “conflict of interest” in appearing in a debate on ABC News since he is suing the network and its Sunday morning anchor George Stephanopoulos for defamation.