Donald Trump said he expects to eventually debate Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, after previously declining to commit to appear at a scheduled face-off.
“Yes. I’ll probably end up debating,” Trump said in an interview with Laura Ingraham that aired Monday evening on Fox News. He added that “the debates should take place before the votes start being cast.”
Some states begin the voting process as early as September. Still, the Republican nominee said that he could “make a case for not doing it.”
“I want to do a debate but I can also say this. Everybody knows who I am and now people know who she is,” Trump said, casting Harris as a “radical left lunatic.”
Democrats are poised to nominate Harris in the coming days after President Joe Biden’s decision to stand down from the 2024 race and endorse her. Harris, who has seen the party coalesce behind her, said last week that she was “ready to debate” Trump and accused him of “backpedaling” from an agreement for a Sept. 10 forum to be hosted by ABC News.
But Trump’s campaign refused to commit, with a spokesman saying debate plans “cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee.”
The ABC News forum is one of two that Trump and Biden agreed to before the Democratic incumbent exited the presidential contest. Biden ended his reelection bid after pressure from Democrats worried that he would lose to Trump following a calamitous first debate hosted by CNN that cemented worries about the president’s health and acuity.
Trump on Monday criticized ABC, calling it a “terrible outfit” and adding that he did not “like that ABC is going to get rich.”
In the past, Trump has said he would prefer conservative-leaning Fox News to host a debate.
Earlier Monday, Trump also criticized Fox News in a post on his Truth Social platform, appearing to bristle at its coverage of Harris and ads from Trump opponents that aired on the network, writing “We have to WIN WITHOUT FOX!”
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