Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that while he “probably” will debate Vice President Kamala Harris, he “could also make a case” to avoid a face-to-face confrontation with a possible Democratic opponent.
Trump initially did not say whether he would be willing to debate Harris in a Fox News interview that aired Monday night. While he seemed to confirm his willingness to participate in a debate, his answer left room for ambiguity.
The comments underscore how much the campaign dynamics have changed in the weeks since President Joe Biden withdrew his re-election bid after a disastrous debate with Trump in late June.
Before that debate, Trump had repeatedly challenged Biden to confront him “any time, anywhere.” But when asked about the debate with Harris, his tone was different.
“So, I love debates. I love debates and I’ve had a lot of debates,” the former president told Fox host Laura Ingraham.
“I want to have a debate, but I can also say this: Everybody knows who I am, and now people know who she is,” he said, accusing Harris of being a “radical left-wing lunatic.”
Ingraham interjected: “Then why not debate her?”
Trump responded: “Well, wait. But, because they already know everything.”
When Ingraham said, “They’re going to say you’re afraid to debate her,” Trump responded, “They’re saying the same thing about Biden.”
Trump added, “I’m leading in the polls,” even as some recent surveys show Harris in a near tie or slight lead nationally and in key battleground states.
“The answer is yes, I will probably end up having a debate,” Trump said, adding, “I think the debate should actually happen before the voting begins.”
He noted that his second debate with Biden in the 2020 campaign was “very good,” but that a large portion of the votes had already been cast by the time the event took place in mid-October.
“So the answer is yes,” Trump said. “But I can also make a case for not doing it.”
Meanwhile, Harris has publicly urged Trump to debate her since she became the de facto Democratic nominee on July 21 after Biden withdrew.
Her campaign said earlier Monday that she would participate in the Sept. 10 presidential debate — which Trump and then-candidate Joe Biden had previously agreed to participate in — regardless of whether her Republican opponent would attend.
“We’ll see if Trump shows up,” Harris campaign spokesman Michael Taylor said in a statement.
“As Vice President Harris said last week, the American people deserve to hear the voices of two candidates running for the highest office in the land, and she will do just that at the September debate on ABC,” Taylor said. If Donald Trump and his team say anything other than “We’ll see you there” — and it seems they do — then Trump’s team will make a convenient but expected backtrack.
Harris has accused Trump of “backsliding” on the debate.
“I think voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on the debate stage, so I’m ready for it,” Harris told reporters Thursday. “Let’s go.”
While Trump told reporters last week that he would be willing to debate Harris “many times,” he also said he was “not excited about ABC.”
He said: “When Joe Biden was the worst president in history, they were actually trying to make him into a hero, and they’re doing something similar to Kamala, like she’s running for, which is What a wonderful thing. “I don’t like the idea of ABC. “
Trump’s campaign said Thursday that scheduling a debate against Harris would be “inappropriate” because she is not yet the official Democratic nominee.
“Given the wily Joe Biden and the ongoing political chaos in the Democratic Party, the details of the general election debate cannot be finalized until the Democratic Party formally decides on its nominee,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang said. “With Harry It would be inappropriate to arrange things together because Democrats may still change their minds.”
Neither Trump nor Biden were official nominees of their respective parties at the June debate.
ABC News released eligibility requirements for the debate on Friday, suggesting the network is moving forward with its plans despite Trump’s refusal to commit.
