Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he would no longer participate in a September debate on ABC, opting instead to accept Fox News’ offer to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 4.
The former president said the ABC debate was agreed to when President Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee “but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant.”
Trump also cited his active defamation lawsuit against ABC and the network’s anchor George Stephanopoulos, though that lawsuit had already been filed for months when Trump originally agreed earlier this summer to debate Biden on the network.
Fox News formally invited Trump and Harris to debate on its network in September just days after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris.
The network pitched two of its anchors, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, as moderators, which Trump agreed to in his Truth Social post.
Trump added that the debate would take place in Pennsylvania, with a full arena audience.
A representative for Fox News did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether the debate would feature an audience.
A June debate between Trump and Biden was held in a CNN studio in Atlanta and did not include an audience.
Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign communications director, told NBC News in a statement: “Donald 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. He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on Sept 10.”
“The Vice President will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience,” he added in the statement. “We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to. Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th.”
A campaign official also told NBC News that “it is our understanding that ABC intends to provide the airtime to whichever qualifying candidates show up — even if it is just her.”
Trump’s Friday Truth Social post came the same day Harris’ campaign criticized Trump online, taking out digital ads in local newspapers and accusing the former president of being scared to debate because of his ties to Project 2025, a conservative action plan written by Trump allies for the next Republican presidential administration.
In a tweet posted Saturday, the vice president said, “It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space.’ I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
Her tweet referenced Trump’s refrain during debate negotiations with Biden that he would debate “anytime, any place.”
On Saturday afternoon, Trump doubled down on his original post, criticizing Harris and reiterating that he would only participate in a debate on Fox.
“I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” the former president wrote in a Truth Social post.
The digital ads match messaging from the campaign at a rally in Atlanta earlier this week.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who spoke at the Harris rally, said Trump was “too scared” to debate the vice president.
In response, the thousands of people in attendance started chanting, “He’s scared. He’s scared. He’s scared.”
Later that evening, Harris herself took the stage and addressed the former president, saying, “Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, if you got something to say.”
The rally crowd yelled back at Harris, “say it to my face!”
Trump’s post also came just hours after Fox Business aired a pretaped interview with Trump in which he told host Maria Bartiromo, “I mean, right now I say why should I do a debate? I’m leading in the polls, and everybody knows her. Everybody knows me.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
