Former President Donald J. Trump said on Friday that he agreed to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 4 in an event moderated by Fox News. If it happens, that would be the second presidential debate this election cycle and the first between Mr. Trump and the new Democratic candidate.
According to Mr. Trump’s post on his social media site, the debate is to take place at a to-be-determined location in Pennsylvania, the must-win battleground state that could help decide the election. Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would moderate.
It was unclear early Saturday if Ms. Harris had agreed to the debate and its terms. Representatives for her campaign did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Fox News also did not respond to questions.
Mr. Trump said that the Fox News debate would have a live audience; the previous debate between President Biden and Mr. Trump took place in an empty venue. Though the campaigns agreed to the format of the first debate, Mr. Trump previously bemoaned that there was no crowd.
Mr. Trump also said that he is “totally prepared to accept” Ms. Harris as the Democrats’ new candidate. Since her campaign suddenly took shape after Mr. Biden dropped out of the race, he has characterized her ascendancy as a “coup” within the Democratic Party. The former president complained about the shake-up among his opponents in his debate announcement.
“I spent Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, Time, and Effort fighting Joe, and when I won the Debate, they threw a new Candidate into the ring,” Mr. Trump said on his social media site on Friday, adding he hopes to tie Ms. Harris to Mr. Biden’s policies.
The Sept. 4 date is close to the start of some states’ early voting windows and long after Ms. Harris presumably would have clinched the nomination from her party. (She is expected to secure the nomination once the Democrats’ virtual roll call vote concludes on Monday.)
The first presidential debate between President Biden and Mr. Trump, hosted by CNN, was among the most consequential presidential debates in history, according to experts. Mr. Biden gave a halting performance that contrasted strongly with Mr. Trump, who repeatedly advanced falsehoods.
Mr. Biden’s garbled responses supercharged concerns among his Democratic colleagues about his age and health, as well as his ability to beat Mr. Trump in the general election. After several weeks of declining poll numbers and mounting pressure from key allies, Mr. Biden announced on July 21 that he would withdraw from the race.
Since Ms. Harris has challenged Mr. Trump to debate her and criticized his previous reluctance to commit to a date despite his previous comments to debate Mr. Biden “any time, any place.”
Mr. Trump formerly agreed to debate Mr. Biden for a second debate hosted by ABC for Sept. 10. But Mr. Trump did not indicate he would stick to the plan after the president dropped out, though Ms. Harris said she would be willing to take the president’s place.
“Well Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” Ms. Harris said at her rally in Atlanta on Tuesday. “Because as the saying goes, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’”
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