Now facing Harris, Trump backs off his commitment to debate in September

Advisers to former President Donald Trump said they would not commit to another debate, one they had already agreed to participate in, now that the Democrats have changed candidates from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden and Trump had agreed to two general election debates, the first of which took place June 27. Biden’s performance was so calamitous that it began a four-week drumbeat toward his departure from the race.

The two men agreed months ago to a second debate, to be held Sept. 10, and hosted by ABC News. Trump complained at the time that they should have even more.

But Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race, and within 48 hours, nearly the entire Democratic Party had coalesced around Harris as the nominee to compete against Trump, the Republican nominee for the third straight presidential election. The last major Democrat to endorse Harris — former President Barack Obama — did so on Friday. Harris’ team is in the early stages of vetting potential running mates.

Nonetheless, in a statement issued late Thursday, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, maintained that there was “continued political chaos surrounding” Biden and the Democrats, so “general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee.”

The statement insisted that many in the Democratic Party — including Obama — think that Harris cannot beat Trump and that “they are still holding out for someone ‘better.’” The statement added: “Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”

The statement came hours after Harris recommitted to the ABC News debate. “I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on the debate stage,” she told reporters at Joint Base Andrews after a trip to Texas and Indiana, saying that Trump was “backpedaling” to get out of the debate.

After the Trump campaign issued its statement, Harris posted on the social media website X, “What happened to ‘any time, any place?’” referring to Trump’s previous insistence that he would debate Biden whenever and wherever.

Trump first hinted Sunday that he was rethinking participating in the next debate after Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the race. Trump suggested that the ABC News debate should be moved to Fox News, whose prime-time hosts have been very friendly to Trump.

Fox News later proposed a debate for Sept. 17.

“Well, I haven’t agreed to anything,” Trump told reporters on a call this week hosted by the Republican National Committee. “I agreed to debate with Joe Biden. But I want to debate her, and she’ll be no different because they have the same policies.”

Another Trump adviser, Jason Miller, told Axios that there should be “multiple debates,” but also pushed back on the notion that the ABC News debate was set in stone.

A New York Times/Siena College survey published Thursday showed Democrats coalescing around Harris, helping to narrow what had been a larger gap between Trump and Biden. The survey showed Trump and Harris in a virtual tie, with him leading among likely voters by one percentage point, 48% to 47%.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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