Trump campaign says it won’t commit to Harris debate until she’s confirmed as nominee

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Sam Fossum, CNN

(CNN) — After Vice President Kamala Harris accused former President Donald Trump of “backpedaling” on a debate, the Trump campaign said Thursday it would not commit to any future debates until the Democratic Party formally chooses a nominee.

President Joe Biden’s decision to step down from the Democratic ticket on Sunday threw previous debate plans into doubt. While the Biden and Trump campaigns had agreed to a debate hosted by ABC on September 10, it is unclear if it will go on as planned.

“I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10th debate, he agreed to that previously,” Harris told reporters after landing at Joint Base Andrews Thursday. “Now it appears he’s backpedaling. But I’m ready. And I think that the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage and so, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director, said in a statement late Thursday that it “would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds,” since Harris is only the party’s presumptive nominee.

Harris quickly hit back on social media. “What happened to ‘any time, any place’?” she said in a post on X.

Democratic delegates are expected to vote virtually to confirm Harris as the party’s nominee by August 7. Trump, for his part, officially clinched the Republican nomination last week at the Republican National Convention.

Trump told reporters earlier this week he wants to debate Harris but has not yet agreed to anything.

“I haven’t agreed to anything. I agreed to a debate with Joe Biden,” Trump said on a press call. “But I want to debate with her, and she’ll be no different because they have the same policies. I think debating is important for a presidential race, I really do. You sort of have an obligation to debate.”

Biden’s exit from the race came weeks after a disastrous performance at the CNN debate last month. He endorsed Harris shortly after his announcement, and the vice president quickly racked up enough delegate endorsements to win the Democratic presidential nomination. While those endorsements are not binding, Harris is still the favorite to take Biden’s place.

Harris would not say on Thursday whether she was open to another proposed debate hosted by Fox News. Before Biden withdrew from the race, Harris had positioned herself to go up against Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on the debate stage. In a brief call earlier this month, both candidates said they looked forward to debating one another but didn’t discuss specifics about when that would happen, CNN previously reported. 

It’s now becoming clear those debate plans won’t be made after all, as Vance noted at a campaign stop in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, earlier this week.

“I was told I was going to get to debate Kamala Harris, and now President Trump’s going to get to debate her?” Vance joked. “I’m kind of pissed off about that if I’m being honest with you.”

This story’s headline has been updated.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Steve Contorno and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

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