Donald Trump tore into ABC News on Sunday night and indicated he might be about to walk away from his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris on the network, so far the only debate to which both campaigns have agreed.
“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The former president continued by referencing the scandal involving ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, who tipped off Hillary Clinton’s campaign about questions ahead of a CNN debate and town hall during the 2016 election. “Will panelist Donna Brazil give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton?” Trump wrote.
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He also questioned if George Stephanopoulos would be “involved” in the debate. “Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now?” Trump asked.
In March, Trump filed a lawsuit against ABC News and Stephanopoulos after the host said on air that Trump had been found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll—a civil jury did not find Trump liable for rape as defined in New York State law, though the judge in the case later clarified that doesn’t mean Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
Trump, who was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming Caroll, said in a Fox News interview earlier this month that his litigation against ABC could create conflict of interest issues for the scheduled debate.
The Republican nominee did not say in his Truth Social post that he would no longer participate, saying instead that ABC News has “a lot of questions to answer!!!”
“Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN?” his post ended. “Stay tuned!!!”
According to Politico, the Trump and Harris campaigns have hit an “impasse” over whether candidates’ microphones at the ABC News debate will be muted when they’re not speaking, as was the case in Trump’s debate against President Joe Biden on CNN in June.
This time, however, it’s the Democratic side of the stage reportedly pushing for both candidates’ mics to remain hot throughout the entire broadcast in the belief they can “get Trump to lose his cool and say something impolitic on mic,” Politico reports.
Trump has previously said he wouldn’t do the ABC News event. On August 3, Trump said the ABC News event—to which he’d originally agreed while believing Biden would be the Democratic nominee—had been “terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant.”
Instead, he said he’d agreed to do a debate on Fox News on Sept. 4. He later indicated that he wouldn’t agree to any debates with Harris if she didn’t do the Fox News event, writing: “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all.”
Just days later, Trump confirmed during a rambling news conference he’d recommitted to the ABC News debate against Harris. He also used the event to pressure Harris to agree to the Fox News debate and said he’d also agreed to a third debate on NBC News later in September.
Last week, Trump claimed Harris “just informed us” she wouldn’t take part in a presidential debate on Fox News which was under consideration for Sept. 4, though Harris’ campaign never confirmed it had agreed to the event.
Michael Tyler, the communications director for the Harris-Walz campaign, said earlier this month that more debates between Harris and Trump would be contingent on Trump taking part in the ABC News showdown.
“Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” Tyler said in a statement.
