Trump backs out of ABC debate, says he will only debate Harris on Fox

Donald Trump says he is pulling out of a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC and wants them to face off on Fox News, making it increasingly unlikely that the candidates will confront each other on stage before the November election.

In a series of Truth Social posts late Friday, the Republican nominee and former president said his agreement to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC “has been terminated because he will no longer face Democratic President Joe Biden, who ended his campaign last month after a disastrous performance in their first debate.

Trump now says he will appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania with rules that he called “similar” to his debate with Biden, but with a full audience instead of a mostly empty studio. Trump said that if Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, does not agree to the new network and date, he will do a “major Town Hall” with Fox News.

Michael Tyler, a Harris spokesperson, said Trump “is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out.”

It was not immediately clear whether ABC would turn its Sept. 10 event into a Harris town hall in Trumps absence. Tyler said Harris is committed to the time slot and would appear “one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience.”

In a subsequent Truth Social post on Saturday afternoon, Trump said of Harris, “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”

Trump has gone back and forth on debating with Harris since she entered the presidential race. He had told reporters he felt an obligation to debate but also said in a recent Fox News interview that he thought Americans “already know everything” about both candidates Harris has pressed Trump to keep the commitment he made when Biden was in the race. Noting Trumps criticisms of her, Harris dared him recently to “say it to my face.”

In his Truth Social posts, Trump also cited his litigation against ABC News as “a conflict of interest” in his participation in the network’s debate. Trump sued the network in March following an assertion by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found “liable for rape. A New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll but rejected her claim that she was raped.

But Trump agreed, two months after filing his lawsuit, to the Sept. 10 debate on ABC, as well as the June 27 debate on CNN that helped knock Biden out of the race. David Muir and Linsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are set to be ABCs debate moderators.

Trump has skipped debates before, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.

SportsPlus

Crime

12/2: Calcasieu Parish Sheriff announces arrest list

McNeese Sports

Back in the saddle: Viator returning to Cowboys

LSU Sports

Cowboys return home for tough battle

Football

Scooter Hobbs column: A little late, but Tigers put it all together

Local News

Biden’s broken promise on pardoning his son Hunter is raising new questions about his legacy

Crime

Bah, humbug! Vandal smashes Ebenezer Scrooge’s tombstone used in ‘A Christmas Carol’ movie

Crime

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail by third judge as he awaits sex trafficking trial

Local News

Police deny sitting on evidence as Netflix doc brings renewed attention to JonBenet Ramsey’s killing

Local News

Welsh library addition nearing completition

life

Monuments of Ancient Egypt: Sense of wonder and awe during trip of a lifetime

Crime

Moss Bluff man arrested in shooting following verbal altercation

life

All aboard: Club keeps alive childhood memories of model trains

life

Cassidy’s office to help residents with Social Security forms

Local News

Kinder moving forward with property, wastewater treatment, drainage projects

Local News

Additional law enforcement to be stationed at mall during Christmas shopping season

Local News

Calcasieu school tax renewals up for vote

Jim Beam

Jim Beam column: It’s news that people can use

Business

Black Friday shoppers hit stores across SW La.

Local News

Ardoin earns his fifth Grammy nomination

Local News

Radio host Dale Mann dies at 78

Local News

Louisiana will now have lowest tax rate, highest sales tax

Local News

Scooter Hobbs: OU tries out for LSU dance partner

Local News

Scooter Hobbs column: Rival or not, LSU welcomes Oklahoma to the SEC

Local News

LC native Lauren Daigle to perform ‘America the Beautiful’ with Trombone Shorty for Super Bowl pregame