Fox News renews invitation for Harris, Trump debate

Fox News has renewed an invitation for former President Trump and Vice President Harris to debate on the network in October, anchor Bret Baier said Tuesday.

The news came after the Harris campaign issued a statement after the Tuesday night clash between the candidates, lauding her performance and saying, “Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump."

"That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October," the statement added. "Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

Baier said, to that point, "Fox has officially invited both campaigns to a debate in October."

"We have sent a formal invitation as we had before," he said. "And we've renewed that specifically for a debate to be hosted on Fox News. In October, we hope that [is] taken up, seems like the American people would love another opportunity to [compare the] candidates. It's been such a short window, and they deserve as many opportunities as possible. We certainly hope that they will take us up on that."

Trump has repeatedly pressed for a debate hosted by Fox, the top-watched cable news channel that features a number of prime-time opinion hosts who are largely supportive of him and his policies.

But after the Philadelphia debate, Trump was non-committal about taking the debate stage with Harris again.

“She wants to do another one because she was beaten tonight. I don’t know if we're going to do another one,” he said during an unexpected appearance in the spin room. “She wants a second debate because she lost tonight, very badly… we’ll think about that.”

Updated 11:45 p.m.