gotchanewsdaily.com 
CHAPIN, S.C. โ
Donald Trump says he is pulling out of a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC and wants them to face off on Fox News, making it increasingly unlikely that the candidates will confront each other on stage before the November election.
In a series of Truth Social posts late Friday, the Republican nominee and former president said his agreement to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC โhas been terminatedโ because he will no longer face Democratic President Biden, who ended his campaign last month after a disastrous performance in their first debate.
Trump now says he will appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania with rules that he called โsimilarโ to his debate with Biden, but with a full audience instead of a mostly empty studio. Trump said that if Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, does not agree to the new network and date, he will do a โmajor Town Hallโ with Fox News.
Michael Tyler, a Harris spokesperson, said Trump โis running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out.โ
It was not immediately clear whether ABC would turn its Sept. 10 event into a Harris town hall in Trumpโs absence. Tyler said Harris is committed to the time slot and would appear โone way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience.โ
In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump said of Harris, โIโll see her on September 4th or, I wonโt see her at all.โ
Trump has gone back and forth on debating with Harris since she entered the presidential race. He had told reporters he felt an obligation to debate but also said in a recent Fox News interview that he thought Americans โalready know everythingโ about both candidates. Harris has pressed Trump to keep the commitment he made when Biden was in the race. Noting Trumpโs criticisms of her, Harris dared him recently to โsay it to my face.โ
In his Truth Social posts, Trump also cited his litigation against ABC News as โa conflict of interestโ in his participation in the networkโs debate. Trump sued the network in March following an assertion by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found โliable for rape.โ A New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll but, based on the stateโs then-definition of rape, rejected her accusation that she was raped.
But Trump agreed, two months after filing his lawsuit, to the Sept. 10 debate on ABC, as well as the June 27 debate on CNN that helped knock Biden out of the race. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are set to be ABCโs debate moderators.
Trump has skipped debates before, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.
Kinnard writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report. Times staff contributed to this report.
