By Gram Slattery, Timothy Gardner and Surbhi Misra
ATLANTA (Reuters) -Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed to debate Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox Information on Sept. 4, however the Harris marketing campaign countered that Trump was attempting to again out of a debate that had already been set to run on ABC.
The principles can be much like the primary debate with President Joe Biden, who has since dropped his reelection bid, Trump mentioned in a put up on Reality Social late on Friday. However this time it will have a “full arena audience” and happen within the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump mentioned.
Trump and Biden had agreed to a second debate on Sept. 10 on ABC Information, which the previous president had instructed must be moved to Fox, the preferred community together with his followers.
Harris, who on Friday secured the delegate votes wanted to clinch the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 5 election, mentioned on Saturday she plans to take part within the initially deliberate debate.
“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space,'” she wrote on social media platform X. “I’ll be there on Sept. 10, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
Harris spokesperson Michael Tyler mentioned Trump was “running scared” and that her marketing campaign was glad to debate additional debates after the Sept. 10 one which “both campaigns have already agreed to.”
On Saturday, Trump mentioned on Reality Social that Harris is “afraid to do it” and that he’ll see her on Sept. 4, “or, I won’t see her at all.”
Each candidates have been crisscrossing the nation aggressively, with Trump attempting out recent traces of assault towards Harris, who some polls present is in a digital lifeless warmth with the previous president.
At a rally in Atlanta on Saturday evening, Trump attacked Harris’ character and the insurance policies she has promoted as vp, and he continued to lift questions on her racial identification.
On Thursday, Trump had falsely instructed to the nation’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists that Harris had downplayed her Black heritage. Harris, who’s of Indian and Jamaican heritage, has lengthy self-identified as each Black and Asian. She attended a historically Black college, the place she joined a outstanding Black sorority.
Trump, talking on the identical stadium the place Harris held a rally on Tuesday, mentioned on Saturday that there have been “19 different ways” of announcing Harris’ first title, whereas additionally calling her a “lunatic” with a “low IQ.” Earlier than Trump took the stage, his marketing campaign displayed an article on a big display referring to Harris because the “first Indian-American senator.”
The previous president additionally devoted a lot of his speech to attacking Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and the state’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. Each males drew Trump’s wrath for failing to overturn Trump’s election loss to Biden in Georgia in 2020.
Trump’s combative efficiency contrasts with the recommendation of some senior Republicans who’ve known as on him to keep away from assaults on Harris’ identification and pleasant hearth directed at conservatives.
Following Trump’s speech, the Harris marketing campaign launched an announcement by Geoff Duncan, the Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia from 2019 to 2023 and a vocal Trump critic.
“If you were able to see through Donald Trump’s incoherence and vindictiveness tonight, you saw a Donald Trump who does not care about uniting this country or speaking to the voters who will decide this election,” Duncan mentioned.
DEBATE ‘TERMINATED’?
In his Friday put up on Reality Social, Trump mentioned the ABC debate had been “terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant” and since he himself was in litigation with ABC.
ABC on July 26 outlined qualification necessities for the controversy however didn’t point out any candidates by title. These necessities embody proving polling assist and state poll entry by Sept. 3.
Latest polls present a good contest between Harris and Trump, who had opened a transparent lead over Biden after the president’s fumbling, halting efficiency first debate.
ABC Information had no remark about Trump’s assertion, a spokesperson mentioned. Fox Information didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Trump’s proposal for the controversy on Fox got here proper after the Democratic Nationwide Committee launched an promoting marketing campaign taunting him by saying “the convicted felon is afraid to debate” and questioning whether or not that is because of his stance on abortion.
David Plouffe, an adviser to former President Barack Obama who just lately joined the Harris marketing campaign, posted on social media: “Now, he seems only comfortable in a cocoon, asking his happy place Fox to host a Trump rally and call it a debate. Maybe he can only handle debating someone his own age.”
Trump is 78, and Harris is 59.
