In the weeks after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek a second term in the Oval Office, many questions came up about who would replace him on the ticket and how the rest of the race would play out. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, more questions arose surrounding the second presidential debate.
Many questions remain unanswered, including who will host the debate, when it will be and whether it will actually happen. All of those remain unclear.
Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed to debate on ABC News on Sept. 10. Harris agreed to debate on the same stage when she took over as presumptive Democratic nominee.
However, on Friday, Aug. 2, Trump said he would not be there. In a series of posts on Truth Social, the former president said since Biden is no longer a candidate, the debate is “terminated.”
Trump also said ongoing defamation lawsuit against ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos created a conflict of interest with the network.
Stephanopoulos was not scheduled to moderate.
Instead, Trump suggested a debate on Sept. 4, hosted by Fox News in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. Trump said if Harris does not accept, he would hold a town hall during that time slot instead.
A Harris campaign spokesperson said Trump is “running scared” and that he was “trying to back out of a debate he already agreed to.”
Harris said if Trump did not appear at the Sept. 10 debate, she would also hold a town hall during the slot.
Fox and ABC News are not the only two candidates to host the second debate. Other networks like NewsNation, which hosted a GOP debate in 2023, sent letters to both candidates’ campaigns on Sunday. The letter proposed a debate in a battleground state, but said the network was flexible on the date and time.
The Washington Post reported that CBS News offered to host the debate on Sept. 4, one day after it hosts the vice presidential debate.
The Commission on Presidential Debates also said that it is ready to carry out its originally scheduled debate plans if Trump and Harris agree to them. Trump and Biden had previously chose to participate in independent debates, like the one CNN hosted on June 27. Biden’s performance during that debate ultimately led him to drop out of the race.
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