Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign for president is continuing to hammer home its claim that former President Donald Trump is backtracking on a commitment to a debate in September.
Trump committed to two debates with President Joe Biden — on June 27 on CNN and Sept. 10 on ABC, with the latter taking place regardless of whether Biden was still in the race.
Michael Tyler, communications director for Harris' campaign, said the presumptive Democrat nominee will be at the Sept. 10 debate whether Trump is there or not.
"As Vice President Harris said last week, the American people deserve to hear from the two candidates running for the highest office in the land and she will do that at September's ABC debate," Tyler said, according to The Hill. "If Donald Trump and his team are saying anything other than We'll see you there — and it appears that they are — it's a convenient but expected backtrack from Team Trump. Vice President Harris will be there on Sept. 10 — we'll see if Trump shows."
Trump told reporters Tuesday he would "absolutely" debate Harris but signaled he might not be willing to participate in the ABC event, The Hill reported. His campaign said Thursday it would not agree to a general election debate with Harris until Democrats formally decide on their nominee. Harris reportedly has secured enough delegates to gain the nomination, and the delegates are expected to hold a virtual vote Aug. 1 ahead of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump's campaign, told MSNBC on Sunday that "of course" Trump will debate the Democrat nominee, The Hill reported, but that Democrats "need to pick who their ultimate nominee is going to be, that needs to be formalized before we go and lock in all the debates."
Miller told Axios on Thursday, "Not only will there be another debate, but there should be multiple debates. We do think there should be some diversification in the outlets for who hosts a debate, but I think the public would be sold short if we only did one debate against Kamala Harris in the general election."
Fox News reportedly sent invitation letters Wednesday to the Trump and Harris campaigns to propose a Sept. 17 debate in Pennsylvania. It would be moderated by anchors Martha MacCallum and Brett Baier.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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