Donald Trump has agreed to an offer from Fox News to hold a debate with Kamala Harris on 4 September after the Democratic presidential nominee challenged her Republican counterpart.
His announcement came a week after Ms Harris said she was “ready” to go head-to-head with the former president on stage but accused him of “backpedaling” on his commitment to the debate previously scheduled for 10 September on ABC News with president Joe Biden.
Mr Trump on Truth Social said the debate will be held in Pennsylvania, at a site yet to be determined. “If for any reason Kamala is unwilling or unable to debate on that date, I have agreed with Fox to do a major Town Hall on the same 4 September evening,” he added.
The 45th president added that the debate’s moderators would be journalists Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum= and the rules would be similar to that of his previous debate with Mr Biden, but “with a full arena audience”.
Mr Trump claimed he was prepared to accept the results of a “coup” and replace Mr Biden on the stage with “crazy Kamala Harris”.
“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,” he lamented, before adding: “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.
Mr Trump emerged with a clear advantage from his 27 June debate with Mr Biden, whose faltering performance renewed voters’ deep concerns about his age. The two had agreed to a second debate on 10 September but Mr Trump had so far avoided clarifying whether he would debate Ms Harris.
After Mr Biden dropped out of the race on 21 July and backed his vice president, Mr Trump said that he would not debate her because she was not the official candidate. He added that former president Barack Obama had yet to endorse her as proof of lack of support for her bid. A day later, Mr Obama endorsed Ms Harris, who on Friday secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
The debate had become a rallying cry for Ms Harris, who this week urged her Republican opponent to “reconsider” meeting her on the stage. “Because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face,” Ms Harris said.
Mr Trump earlier said he didn’t need to debate Ms Harris, because he was leading in the polls and voters already knew where he and his Democratic rival stood on issues.
“Well, I want to,” he told Fox Business Network. “Right now I say, ‘Why should I do a debate?’ I’m leading in the polls, and everybody knows her, everybody knows me.”
Meanwhile, Ms Harris said she was honoured to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the US. “The tireless work of our delegates, our state leaders, and our staff has been pivotal to making this moment possible,” she said.
The vice president reached the requisite 2,350 delegate votes on Friday afternoon during a virtual roll call vote ahead of this month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, according to DNC chair Jaime Harrison.