Harris claims Trump is ‘running scared’ to Fox News after backing out of ABC debate

Kamala Harris has accused Donald Trump of “running scared” from a scheduled debate with her on ABC News, and choosing a new option with Fox News “to bail him out”.

ABC News announced in May that the network would host a debate between Trump and President Joe Biden on September 10 after both accepted the invitation. Since Biden has withdrawn his re-election campaign and backed his vice president for the top of the ticket, Harris has stepped in to fulfill the commitment.

After Biden stepped aside, Fox News said that it sent a letter to both the Harris and Trump campaigns in late July offering to host a debate on September 17.

Late on Friday, Trump then announced on Truth Social that he plans to debate Harris earlier than that - on September 4 - on Fox News, and criticized ABC, including their anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th,” Trump wrote. “The Debate was previously scheduled against Sleepy Joe Biden on ABC, but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant, and I am in litigation against ABC Network and George Slopadopoulos, thereby creating a conflict of interest.”

Trump said the Fox debate will be moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum and boast “A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!”

On Saturday, the Harris campaign issued a statement, accusing Trump of backpedaling.

"Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out. He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on Sept 10,” it read.

“The Vice President will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience. We're happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to. Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he's too scared to show up on the 10th,” the statement continued.

Despite Trump’s claim that a “conflict of interest” would keep him from taking part in the ABC News debate, his lawsuit was filed months before he agreed in May to take part in the September debate, a source familiar with the matter told The Independent.

Stephanopoulos will not be moderating the debate, the source added.

Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos in March, days after the anchor suggested that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in the E Jean Carroll case. Trump had been found liable for abuse, not rape, in the civil case.

The last debate, which took place on June 27 on CNN between Trump and Biden, resulted in relentless questions over whether president was able to beat Trump and handle another four years in office, ultimately beginning the spiral which saw him withdraw from the race. CNN’s handling of the debate was also criticized because it lacked live fact-checking, and Trump was later found to have lied 30 times in the 90-minute event.

It’s unclear whether the upcoming scheduled debates, held by either ABC News or Fox News, would include live fact-checking. The Independent has emailed both networks for more information.

Trump also lamented on Friday that he was having to face a new Democratic candidate. "I spent hundreds of millions of dollars, time, and effort fighting Joe, and when I won the debate, they threw a new candidate into the ring. Not fair," Trump posted on Truth Social. "But it is what it is!"

"Nevertheless, different candidate or not, their bad policies are the same, and this will be strongly revealed at the 4 September debate," he added.

Trump has previously said that he would not debate Harris because she was not the official candidate. On Friday, Harris secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

She reached the requisite 2,350 delegate votes during a virtual roll call vote ahead of this month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Harris said she was honoured to be the presumptive Democratic nominee. “The tireless work of our delegates, our state leaders, and our staff has been pivotal to making this moment possible,” she said.

This article has been updated