Author Stephen King has criticized presidential candidate Donald Trump for wanting to change the broadcaster and date for an upcoming presidential debate.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced a debate between himself and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris will take place on September 4 in Pennsylvania, to be hosted by Fox News.
However, the Harris’ campaign is pushing for the debate to take place on ABC News on September 10, in a slot previously scheduled for a debate between President Joe Biden and Trump.
Trump originally said he would not debate Harris because she was, at the time, not the official Democratic candidate.
“I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” he posted on Saturday. He also said it was “not fair” that the “hundreds of millions of dollars, time, and effort” in his campaign against Biden, who dropped his reelection bid last month.
King, a frequent critic of Trump, accused the Republican of being “chickens***” and said he was afraid to go head-to-head with Harris. He posted to his X account on August 3: “An elderly man afraid to debate a woman; hoping his base will bail him out. As kids, we called this kind of behavior chickens***.”
An elderly man afraid to debate a woman; hoping his base will bail him out. As kids, we called this kind of behavior chickenshit.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 3, 2024
The post has been viewed more than a million times and reposted upward of 6,000 times.
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign team for comment via email outside of normal working hours.
A prior post made on the same evening reads: “Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out.”
Harris responded to Trump’s complaints about the ABC debate on X. “It’s interesting how “any time, any place” becomes “one specific time, one specific safe space.” I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there,” she wrote.
Trump is currently involved in litigation against the network. The former president brought a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and host George Stephanopoulos in March this year following comments during an interview with Republican Representative Nancy Mace.
Stephanopoulos stated that Trump had been found guilty of “rape” in relation to his legal battle with writer E. Jean Carroll, the former president has been held liable for sexual assault and defamation against her, with a court ruling in Carroll’s favor and awarding her $83.3 million in damages.
King has shown his support for Harris since she became the favorite, and is now confirmed, for the Democratic nomination. On August 1, he urged Republicans to “hold your nose to vote for Harris,” saying that “Trump is dangerous” and likened him to child having a tantrum.
“There’s only one adult in this contest. It’s Harris,” he wrote on X.
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