Trump Withdraws from ABC Debate, Challenges Harris to Fox News Showdown

Donald Trump stated that he is withdrawing from a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC and wishes to instead have the debate on Fox News. This makes it increasingly unlikely that the candidates will face each other on stage before the November election. In a series of Truth Social posts late Friday, the Republican nominee and former president announced that his agreement to a Sept 10 debate on ABC “has been terminated” as he will no longer face Democratic President Joe Biden, who ended his campaign last month after a poor performance in their first debate. Trump now intends to appear on Fox News on Sept 4 in Pennsylvania with rules that he claims are “similar” to his debate with Biden, but with a full audience rather than a mostly empty studio.

Trump mentioned that if Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, does not agree to the new network and date, he will hold a “major Town Hall” with Fox News. A spokesperson for Harris, Michael Tyler, said 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”. It was not immediately clear whether ABC would convert its Sept 10 event into a Harris town hall in Trump’s absence.

Tyler said Harris is committed to the time slot and would appear “one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience”.

Trump has been indecisive about debating Harris since she entered the presidential race. He had indicated to reporters that he felt obliged to debate but also stated in a recent Fox News interview that he thought Americans “already know everything” about both candidates. Harris has urged Trump to honor the commitment he made when Biden was in the race. Noting Trump’s criticisms of her, Harris dared him recently to “say it to my face”.

In his Truth Social posts, Trump also mentioned his litigation against ABC News as “a conflict of interest” in his participation in the network’s debate. Trump sued the network in March following an assertion by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found “liable for rape”.

A New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E Jean Carroll but rejected her claim that she was raped.

However, despite filing a lawsuit against the network, Trump agreed to the Sept 10 debate on ABC, as well as the June 27 debate on CNN that helped end Biden’s candidacy. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are set to be ABC’s debate moderators. Trump has skipped debates before, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.