The campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris urged former President Donald Trump to “man up” on Friday by agreeing to take part in a previously-scheduled debate on September 10.
Trump had been scheduled to faced off against President Joe Biden in the ABC-hosted debate. However, Trump reversed course on the debate after Biden dropped out of this year’s presidential election on July 21 and endorsed Harris, with the former president wavering on whether he will agree to debate the vice president at all.
In Fox Business interview that aired on Friday, Trump suggested that he did not need to debate Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, because “everybody knows” both candidates. The Harris campaign called out Trump hours later in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, suggesting that he is “too scared” to face her.
“Donald Trump needs to man up,” the statement reads. “He’s got no problem spreading lies and hateful garbage at his rallies or in interviews with right-wing commentators. But he’s apparently too scared to do it standing across the stage from the Vice President of the United States.”
It continued: “Since he talks the talk, he should walk the walk and – as Vice President Harris said earlier this week – say it to her face on September 10. She’ll be there waiting to see if he’ll show up.”
Newsweek has reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Friday.
The Harris campaign’s statement echoed remarks that the vice president made during a rally earlier this week in Atlanta where she argued that her “momentum” had scared off the former president.
“The momentum in this race is shifting, and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it,” Harris said. “He pulled out of the debate in September he had previously agreed to…So, he won’t debate, but he and his running mate [Ohio Senator JD Vance] sure seem to have a lot to say about me.”
She added: “Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face.”
While Biden was still the Democratic candidate, Trump said in a post to Truth Social, his social media platform, in March that he was willing to debate the incumbent president “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.”
The same standards do not seem to apply to Trump’s willingness to debate Harris, with the ex-president telling Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that he might not debate because he is “leading in the polls” by “quite a bit.”
“I mean right now I say, why should I do a debate?” the former president asked Friday. “I’m leading in the polls. And, everybody knows her, everybody knows me.”
Trump previously suggested that any debate with Harris should take place on the conservative-leaning Fox News, accusing ABC News in a Truth Social post last month of being too biased and “not worthy” of hosting the event. Fox News has proposed a debate for September 17, although neither candidate has accepted the invitation.
Recent polls, meanwhile, show that what was once a steady lead for Trump over Biden has shrunk less than two weeks after Harris entered the race.
On Friday, an average of polls taken since Biden dropped out compiled by polling website FiveThirtyEight showed Harris leading Trump nationally by 45 percent to 43.5 percent, which is a statistical tie due to the average’s uncertainty interval.
Update 8/2/24, 4:18 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 8/2/24, 4:46 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
