Donald Trump announced he is withdrawing from a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC, opting instead for a showdown on Fox News. This shift makes it increasingly improbable that the candidates will face off on stage before the November election.
Late Friday on Truth Social, the Republican nominee and former president declared his agreement to a September 10 debate on ABC “terminated.” He cited Democratic President Joe Biden’s campaign withdrawal last month after a poor debate performance as the reason.
Trump now plans to appear on Fox News on September 4 in Pennsylvania under rules similar to his debate with Biden, but this time with a full audience instead of an empty studio. He stated that if Harris, the expected Democratic nominee, does not agree to the new network and date, he will host a “major Town Hall” on Fox News instead.
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Harris, accused Trump of “running scared” and trying to avoid the debate he initially agreed to by seeking refuge with Fox News.
ABC’s plans for the September 10 event remain unclear, but Tyler affirmed Harris’s commitment to the time slot, stating she would seize the opportunity to address a prime-time national audience regardless of Trump’s participation.
In a follow-up Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump declared, “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
Trump has vacillated on debating Harris since her entry into the presidential race. He previously expressed a sense of duty to debate but recently remarked in a Fox News interview that Americans “already know everything” about both candidates. Harris, noting Trump’s critiques, recently challenged him to “say it to my face.”
Trump also cited his ongoing litigation against ABC News as a “conflict of interest” affecting his participation in the network’s debate. Trump sued ABC in March over comments by anchor George Stephanopoulos, who claimed Trump had been found “liable for rape.” A New York jury had held Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll but did not find him guilty of rape.
Despite his lawsuit, Trump agreed to the September 10 debate on ABC two months after filing it, as well as a June 27 debate on CNN, which played a role in Biden’s exit from the race. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are slated to moderate ABC’s debate.
Trump has previously skipped debates, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.
