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Donald Trump griped in a new social media post about Kamala Harris declining to participate in a Fox News debate on September 4.
His post comes amid weeks of public disagreement over when the two presidential candidates will actually debate as the election quickly approaches.
“Comrade Kamala Harris has just informed us that she will NOT do the FoxNews Debate on September 4th,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday night.
“I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in,” the former president continued, claiming she has changed her tune on issues like fracking and the border crisis.
The Republican nominee then announced he would be holding a town hall on the network rather than a debate. “Rather than the debate on September 4th, I have agreed to do a Tele-Town Hall, anchored by Sean Hannity, for Fox. It will take place in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Details to follow!”
Trump’s Monday post comes days after the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign declared “the debate about debates is over.” On August 15, the campaign sent out a statement announcing that both the Democrats and the Donald Trump-JD Vance campaign had agreed to three debates: two presidential and one vice presidential.
“Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” the Harris-Walz campaign said.
“The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now,” the campaign added.
For weeks, it was unclear whether Trump and Harris would agree on a debate. ABC News announced in May that the network would host a debate between Trump and President Joe Biden on September 10. When Biden stepped aside, Harris said she’d take his place at the ABC debate. But earlier this month, Trump aired frustration with ABC News hosting the face-off given his beef with anchor George Stephanopolous. In March, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and Stephanopoulos.
So, Trump shot back that he’d like to debate Harris on Fox on September 4.
In response, the Harris campaign accused Trump of “running scared” from the ABC News debate and instead choosing Fox News “to bail him out.”
The last debate, which took place on June 27 on CNN between Trump and Biden, was a disaster for the president, ultimately resulting in his decision to bow out of the 2024 race following questions about his fitness for another four years in office. Some also criticized CNN’s handling of the debate, due to its lack of live fact-checking. Trump was later found to have lied 30 times in the 90-minute event.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is days from accepting her party’s nomination in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.
The Independent has emailed the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.
