Kamala Harris Says Will Debate Donald Trump Twice
In an effort to put an end to weeks of political backstabbing, Kamala Harris’s campaign said on Thursday that she would debate Republican competitor Donald Trump twice and their running mates would do so once.
The Trump campaign had been pressing for two more presidential debates in September as well as an additional vice presidential debate. Initially, the two camps had agreed to one presidential debate on September 10 and a vice presidential runoff on October 1.
“The debate about debates is over. Donald Trump’s campaign accepted our proposal for three debates — two presidential and a vice presidential debate,” the Harris campaign said in a statement.
It added that, “assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10,” Harris running mate Tim Walz would debate Trump’s VP pick J.D. Vance on October 1, and then there would be another Trump-Harris face-off later in October.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an AFP request for its reaction to the statement.
Harris’s late entry into the race — replacing President Joe Biden after his withdrawal amid concerns over his age and unpopularity — has effectively turned it into the kind of sprint to election day more common in Europe.
Already a trailblazer as the first female and first Black and South Asian vice president, Harris is aiming to make history as the first woman president — and is scrambling to pitch herself to the public ahead of November 5.
She and Walz head to the Democrats’ national convention in Chicago next week on the back of a blockbuster start, in which they have reversed Trump’s polling leads, obliterated fundraising records and attracted huge ebullient crowds to their rallies.
CBS posted Wednesday on social media platform X that it had offered four potential vice-presidential debates in September and October to Walz, the governor of Minnesota, and Vance, a senator from Ohio.
Both accepted October 1, which comes after early voting has already started in several states, but Vance suggested an earlier debate on September 18 that he said had been offered by CNN.
He had earlier told Fox News he would not do “one of these fake debates… where they don’t actually have an audience,” like the June 27 encounter between Trump and Biden that effectively ended the Democrat’s reelection campaign.
The network, ABC News, which the president had previously objected to, claiming he was in a legal fight with its management, will hold the Harris and Trump debate on September 10.
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