Donald Trump agreed to a second scheduled debate with Joe Biden for Sep. 10 on ABC News. However, now that Biden has withdrawn from the race, much speculation has risen around whether Trump will agree to debate Kamala Harris—who has announced she intends to run for President—instead.
The confusion kickstarted on Monday, July 22, when author and Democrat Stephen King posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Trump has announced he won’t debate Kamala Harris.” At the time of publication, the post has received over 18 million views. King, who has over seven million followers, was sharply criticized by the Trump team. “Stephen King is a dumba**,” Trump 2024 campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung is quoted as telling Newsweek.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]King’s post came after Trump had spoken out on Truth Social, his own social media platform, about being dissatisfied with the September debate being hosted by ABC. On Sunday, July 21, he wrote: “My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September. Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC. Thank you! DJT.”
Trump again emphasized this view on Tuesday, again misspelling Stephanopoulos’ surname. “ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, is not worthy of holding a Debate, of which I hope there will be many! MAGA2024,” he said in another Truth Social post.
But later on Tuesday, during a conference call with the press, Trump told reporters that he “would be willing to do more than one debate actually,” according to Politico. He is also quoted as saying: “If you’re the Democrat[ic] nominee or the Republican nominee, you really have an obligation to debate.”
TIME has reached out to the Trump campaign for further information and comment.
