Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday that former President Trump is dreading debating Vice President Harris.
“He’s even afraid to debate Kamala Harris. He’s already said he won’t debate,” Schumer said. He said in an interview In an interview with NBC News, she said, “She’s a strong black woman. Donald Trump may not want to say that, but it’s true and everyone knows it. He’s afraid to debate her.”
Schumer’s remarks put him in the running with many other Democrats who have made similar comments about Trump, a trend that suggests Democrats are hoping to persuade Trump not to walk away from the upcoming debate in September.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said a week ago that Trump was showing signs of wanting to pull out of a scheduled debate and was growing weaker.
Trump said Monday that Harris would likely debate the vice president, who is currently the party’s leading presidential candidate, before the general election. But the Trump campaign said last week that no agreement could be reached on hosting a general election debate featuring Harris “until the Democratic Party has formally decided on its nominee.”
Trump also suggested that the September 10 debate should be broadcast on Fox instead of ABC.
Schumer’s comments came after President Trump questioned Harris’ ethnic and racial identity during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference earlier this week.
“She’s always been Indian. And she’s just advertised that she’s Indian. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago, when she happened to be black. And now she wants to be known as black,” Trump said.
In an interview with NBC News, Schumer said Democrats “have to make it clear to the American people how absurd and how insane the Trump-Vance combination is.” [there will] If they get elected, America will be in chaos.”
Harris became the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination after weeks of confusion within the party over whether to replace Biden as the top candidate, a turmoil that began largely after Biden’s stumping against Trump in a presidential debate in late June.
According to the Hill/Decision Desk average of national polls, Trump leads Harris by 1.1 percentage points, with the vice president’s approval rating at 46.5 percent and her former counterpart’s at 47.6 percent.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign.
