Former President Trump said Tuesday he was “afraid” that Vice President Harris would agree to a debate on Fox News, despite the latter cancelling a scheduled appearance on ABC News next month.
“Kamabra Harris is afraid to debate me on Fox News,” he wrote. Truthful Social Early Tuesday morning. “It’ll be easier to beat her on the debate stage than it will be to beat the bad Joe Biden. Just take a look!”
Trump and Biden have agreed to debate on September 10, hosted by ABC News, and Harris’s campaign is stepping up pressure for the former president to join her onstage instead. Since Biden dropped out of the race last month, Trump has been hesitant to debate, questioning why he should debate her when he’s leading in the polls — a similar argument he made when he skipped the Republican primary debates.
“If you ask me why we should have a debate now, I would say,” Trump told Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo last week, “I’m leading the polls. And everybody knows her and everybody knows me.”
Just a few days later, Trump announced that he would attend the debate hosted by Fox News on September 4, but not the one hosted by ABC.
The Harris campaign said Trump was “reaching out a helping hand” to Fox News and urged her to debate the newly-elected vice president again on a previously agreed-upon date. In a statement about the Fox News debate, spokesman Michael Tyler accused Trump of being “scared.”
“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to get out of the debate he already agreed to and is asking Fox News for help,” he said. “Trump needs to stop playing ball and show up to the debate he already committed to on September 10th. The vice president will be there anyway for his chance to speak to a national audience in prime time.”
Harris won enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee as her campaign gathered momentum this week, with a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday showing her leading the former president by one point nationally and neck-and-neck with Trump in key battleground states.
The Hill has reached out to Harris’ campaign for comment.
