The Republican and Democratic nominees have now been determined, but plans to bring four presidential and vice presidential candidates to the debate stage have yet to be made, as networks jockey for position, campaigns negotiate and various dates are floated less than three months before Election Day.
Donald Trump kicked off this latest media controversy last Saturday when he announced he would skip the ABC debate scheduled for September 10, which would have originally put him on the defensive. Joe Biden but now will see him sparring with Who is Kamala Harris? Instead, he called for a debate on Fox News on September 4. “I will see her on September 4 or I will not see her at all,” the former president wrote Saturday on Truth Social.
But on Wednesday, after a new round of polls showed Harris narrowing or leading in several battleground states, Trump struck a different tone. “We have to continue the debates,” he said in a phone call with Fox and friends. “That will be announced soon,” he said.
“She doesn’t want to debate,” Trump continued. “She’s saying I don’t want to debate, but I do want to debate.”
Harris, meanwhile, has supported Biden’s agreement to participate in the ABC debate. “I hope Trump agrees to meet me on the debate stage,” she said last week, “because as the saying goes — if you have something to say, say it to my face.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Democratic vice presidential candidate, at a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Tuesday, August 6, 2024.By Hannah Beier/Bloomberg/Getty Images.
As of Tuesday, however, both campaigns had some wiggle room when it came to debate negotiations, as the Democratic nominee had yet to be determined. The September 10 face-off was scheduled ahead of Biden’s campaign-closing performance at CNN’s debate in Atlanta on June 27. Some Trump allies have argued that Biden’s exit from the race changes everything, including the ABC debate agreement. But Harris was certified as the Democratic presidential nominee this week, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was chosen as her running mate on Tuesday, so there are no unknowns left. “I can’t wait to debate that guy,” Walz said that night at a rally in Philadelphia, referring to JD Vance.
When and where such an event would take place remains unclear. Back in May, around the same time Biden and Trump agreed to participate in the CNN and ABC debates, Harris also accepted an invitation from CBS for a vice presidential debate sometime this summer. July 23 and August 13 were floated as possible dates. But “the Trump campaign never agreed,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said. Brian Fallon wrote on X last weekend. Fallon asserted that the Trump campaign “was afraid to debate her as a running mate. Now they’re afraid to debate her at the top of the list.”
With Harris in office and needing to pick her own running mate, CBS went back to the debate drawing board. The network is currently in talks with both campaigns about bringing Walz and Vance on stage together and is offering “some dates in September,” according to a source.
Trump and Biden’s rejection of the decades-old Commission on Presidential Debates created a scramble for television networks earlier this year, with half a dozen networks vying to secure a presidential or vice presidential contest. (CNN ultimately decided to allow its rivals to air the June debate simultaneously, with the expectation that future debate hosts would do the same.) “The fall schedule is a blank sheet of paper right now,” said one network executive, noting that Trump and Harris have never debated before.
Officials at several networks said Vanity Fair that they hope many of the debates will take place in September—the sooner the better, since absentee or mail-in ballots will be sent out on September 6 in North Carolina, September 16 in Pennsylvania, and September 19 in Wisconsin.
For example, NBC News, which did not have a debate in May, is now actively negotiating with both the Trump and Harris campaigns. Fox News is trying to convince Harris to commit to the debate because Bret Baier And Martha MacCallum, Although the conservative network may not be a strong contender for the Democratic ticket, Fox last month suggested a September 17th party showdown, but Trump then seemingly out of nowhere suggested September 4th instead, possibly to target absentee and mail-in voting schedules.
“Discussions are ongoing,” Baier said Tuesday on Fox. “Obviously we have a lot to offer and we’re hopeful that September 4th will be a successful date.”
A source within Harris’ campaign dismissed the idea that Fox actually wanted to participate in the debate.
But Harris remains committed to ABC’s September 10 date. “We are happy to discuss further debates after the debate that both campaigns have agreed to,” a campaign spokesperson said late last week.
Trump sounded like a man willing to take that deal on Wednesday. “We’ll debate her,” he told his Fox pals, adding that “he likes Fox” as a host, “but we have to debate.” He boasted that ABC, NBC and CBS were all courting him: “They all love me now, so, you know, I said yes, because it’s obviously up to me.”
When asked for an update on the debates and specifically whether the ABC event would go ahead, a Trump spokesperson said: Steven Truong said, “Follow!”
