Trump Signals He May Skip ABC News Debate After Bashing Network
Key Facts
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump attacked ABC News reporter Jonathan Carl’s interview of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., calling it “ridiculous and biased” and referring to the network’s pundits as a “Panel of Trump Haters.”
Asking why he should debate Harris on ABC News, the former president suggested the network’s contributor Donna Brazile may “give the questions” to Harris—referencing the 2016 scandal about Brazile leaking a CNN town hall question to Hillary Clinton.
Trump claimed Harris has refused to debate him on “Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN.”
While the former president did not definitively say if he’s planning to skip the debate—he said the network has a “lot of questions to answer” and ended his post with “Stay tuned!”
Key Background
Last week Trump claimed Harris “just informed us” she would not participate in a Fox News-hosted debate on September 4—despite the vice president’s campaign never publicly agreeing to it. Earlier this month, Harris’ campaign issued a statement saying: “The debate about debates is over,” and said the vice president was willing to participate in two debates against Trump. The statement said the second debate was contingent on Trump actually showing up for the ABC News debate. In the past few weeks, Harris and her campaign mocked Trump for his unwillingness to participate in the ABC News debate—despite him having previously agreed to it. Trump and his campaign, however, have insisted the debate schedule he had agreed to was no longer relevant after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. In a press conference earlier this month, Trump offered an alternative proposal and challenged Harris to three debates—including the ABC debate, along with one on NBC and one on Fox News.
News Peg
Aside from the Harris campaign wanting to do two debates compared to the Trump campaign’s demand of three—a major split between the two candidates has been the date and venue of the first debate. Trump has repeatedly pushed for the first debate to be held on Fox News—a network that is more friendly to him—while the Harris campaign wants Trump to do the ABC News debate on September 10 first. The former president has repeatedly lashed out against ABC, calling the network biased and “fake news.”
Tangent
Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Trump’s VP pick Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio., have both agreed to a solitary debate on October 1, hosted by CBS News. Vance offered to do another debate on CNN on September 18, but the Harris campaign appears to have rejected the offer.
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