Former President Donald Trump said it’s Sept. 4 or nothing in the debate back-and-forth with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump said he’s prepared to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 4 on Fox News, but the vice president declined and insisted on the Sept. 10 debate on ABC, in line with the earlier debate arrangement with President Joe Biden.
Trump said in a post on social media on Aug. 3 that, since Biden has dropped out of the race, their arrangement for a Sept. 10 debate on ABC no longer holds. Instead, Trump proposed a Sept. 4 debate against Harris in Pennsylvania, hosted by Fox News.
Harris reacted to Trump’s message in a post on X, saying that she’ll “be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
It’s interesting how “any time, any place” becomes “one specific time, one specific safe space.”
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 3, 2024
I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there. https://t.co/zqng89X8QD
This prompted an ultimatum from Trump.
“I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” he wrote in a follow-up post on Truth Social.
The former president said he sees the Sept. 4 debate as essentially a replacement of the previously scheduled Sept. 10 event, which “has been terminated” because Biden dropped out from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Harris as the Democratic Party nominee.
After Biden announced his withdrawal, Trump called for a change to the Sept. 10 debate, saying in a post on Truth Social that it should be held on Fox News instead of ABC.
In his latest Aug. 3 post, Trump explained that he’s in litigation against ABC and that holding a debate on that network would represent a “conflict of interest.”
The former president also proposed that the moderators of the Sept. 4 debate would be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and the debate rules will be similar to those agreed to in the now defunct debate against Biden, “but with a full arena audience.”
Trump’s June 27 debate against Biden on CNN in Atlanta was held with no studio audience.
Harris said on July 25 that she had agreed to debate Trump at the previously agreed upon Sept. 10 debate, while accusing Trump of trying to back out of that earlier agreement.
By Tom Ozimek
