The debate is on—again.
During a free-wheeling press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday, Donald Trump re-committed to taking part in ABC’s Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, reversing his stance that the network was too conflicted over his pending lawsuit against it.
“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said on Thursday.
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He also claimed he agreed to two other debates, a Sept. 4 one hosted by Fox News and a Sept. 25 one hosted by NBC. Harris’ campaign has not agreed to either the NBC or Fox News debate, and it did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source familiar with the negotiations told The Daily Beast the ABC debate, moderated by anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, is expected to take place in Philadelphia. The negotiations for it were led by ABC News’ Washington Bureau Chief Rick Klein and Executive Editorial Producer John Santucci.
A source familiar with NBC’s negotiations said Trump first confirmed the Sept. 25 date during Thursday’s press conference, and that the network had not heard back from Harris’ campaign as of Thursday afternoon.
Thursday’s debate reversal came after the former president publicly see-sawed between accepting the ABC debate. He backed out of the square-off last week, claiming he had only agreed to debate President Joe Biden, and that he had a “conflict of interest” with ABC over his lawsuit against it and anchor George Stephanopoulos over a March interview Stephanopoulos did with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). He instead suggested he would do Fox News’ proposed Sept. 4 debate, which the network said could be moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
The vice president’s campaign has attacked Trump for backing out of the debate, holding Trump’s previous commitment to it against him.
“I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there,” Harris wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
