Trump Proposes a Fox News Debate With Harris on Sept. 4
Former President Donald J. Trump said late Friday that he agreed with Fox News to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 4, a proposal that has not yet been accepted by the Harris campaign. If it happens, it 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, Truth Social, the debate would take place at a to-be-determined location in Pennsylvania, one of the most consequential battleground states. Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would moderate.
The Harris campaign on Saturday declined to commit to the Fox News debate and said it was still planning on a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC.
“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. He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on Sept. 10,” Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign’s communications director said in a statement. He added: “We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to. Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th.”
A spokeswoman for Fox News 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 was hosted by CNN in an empty venue. Though both campaigns agreed to the format of the first debate, Mr. Trump had bemoaned the lack of a crowd.
He further added the rules would be similar to the CNN debate, though he did not specify which rules. That debate had included mic cuts to prevent