Vice President Kamala Harris has declined the Sept. 4 debate with former President Donald Trump.
Trump was originally scheduled to debate Biden a second time in a September debate hosted by ABC News, though the debate was scrapped after Biden bowed out of the race. In late July, Fox News offered to host a Sept. 4 debate between Trump and Harris in Pennsylvania.
Although Harris’ campaign alleged Trump had backed out of the originally scheduled debate with Biden, Trump noted the agreement was between himself and Biden. Trump later agreed to a Sept. 4 debate with Harris on Fox News along with two other debates on Sept. 10 with NBC News and Sept. 25 with ABC News.
Late Monday night, Trump took to Truth Social to announce Harris had informed his campaign that she would not participate in the Fox News debate.
"Comrade Kamala Harris has just informed us that she will NOT do the Fox News Debate on September 4th," Trump wrote. "I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in, including her statements that THERE WILL BE NO FRACKING IN PENNSYLVANIA and her HORRIBLE Performance on the Border, our 'Border Czar,' where millions of criminals and people from mental institutions and terrorists, have been allowed to pour into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted."
"It’s called, and she LOVES IT, an OPEN BORDER!!!" Trump added. Comrade Kamala Harris has just informed us that she will NOT do the FoxNews Debate on September 4th. I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) August 20, 2024
"Rather than the debate on September 4th, I have agreed to do a Tele-Town Hall, anchored by Sean Hannity, for Fox," the former president continued. "It will take place in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Details to follow!
The Harris campaign has not publicly declined nor addressed the other two proposed debates as of Tuesday morning.
Harris' reversal on debating Trump follows news that former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been working with the former president on a "practice session" in preparation of his debate with Harris.
Gabbard infamously criticized then-California Sen. Harris during the 2019 Democratic presidential debates over her previous record as state attorney general.
“She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard said, as the audience cheered. “She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.”
Gabbard added: “And she fought to keep [a] cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”
Harris responded by saying she “significantly” reformed California’s criminal justice system while serving as the state’s attorney general.
“I am proud of that work, and I am proud of making a decision to not just give fancy speeches or be in a legislative body and give speeches on a floor, but actually doing the work, of being in the position to use the power that I had to reform a system that is badly in need of reform,” she said. NEW: Trump has brought in Tulsi Gabbard to advise him ahead of the debates against Kamala Harris according to the NYT.
The development is likely in response to the time Gabbard absolutely demolished Harris during the CNN debate in 2019.
Trump has "proven to be one of the best… pic.twitter.com/hhimbD1hX4
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 16, 2024
Republican and Democratic vice-presidential nominees Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have both formally agreed to debate on Oct. 1 with CBS News. Vance has further challenged Walz to a second debate on Sept. 18 with CNN.
