Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, expressed her readiness to debate former President Donald Trump and accused him of “backpedaling” on a previously agreed-upon debate.
“Many of you have been asking about the debate, and I’ll tell you I’m ready to debate Donald Trump,” Harris told reporters at Joint Base Andrews after returning from a trip to Indiana and Texas on July 25. “I have agreed to the previously scheduled September 10 debate. He had agreed to that previously, but now it appears he’s backpedaling. But I’m ready.”
She added, “I think the voters deserve to see the stark contrast in this race on a debate stage. And so, I’m ready—let’s go.”
Former President Trump stated in a post on Truth Social earlier this week that the next debate, originally scheduled with President Joe Biden, was set to air on “Fake News ABC” in September. However, he called for a change after Biden dropped out of the race and Harris became the frontrunner candidate.
“Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, quit the race, I think the debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on Fox News rather than very biased ABC,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
During a press call held earlier this week, Trump responded to a question about the importance of debating Harris and whether he would be willing to do so on ABC News.
“Well, I haven’t agreed to anything,” he said. “I agreed to a debate with Joe Biden, but I want to debate her, and she’ll be no different because they have the same policies. I think debating is important for a presidential race; I really do. … I think if you’re the Democrat nominee or the Republican nominee, you have an obligation to debate, so I think it’s very important.”
When reporters at Joint Base Andrews asked Harris if she would be willing to debate on Fox News instead of ABC, she walked away without answering.
Earlier in the day, Harris pitched herself to the American Federation of Teachers at their 88th national convention in Houston.
“The fact is, unions helped build America’s middle class, and when unions are strong, America is strong,” she told the audience of teachers and administrators.
The previous day, she campaigned to some 6,000 members of Zeta Phi Beta, a historically black sorority of which she is a member, at the group’s international convention in Indianapolis on July 24.
