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The former president said there would be a debate on Fox News on September 4 in Pennsylvania, as well as the previously agreed to September 10 debate on ABC News in Pennsylvania, and a third debate on NBC News on September 25 in Michigan. “Details to follow. I look forward to seeing Kamala at all three Debates!” he wrote.
However, the Harris campaign suggested that this schedule was not agreed to from their side, except for the ABC debate.
“We’re pleased Trump finally agreed to debate the Vice President on ABC after previously trying to back out. We are open to another debate, and we’ll continue those conversations. But to be clear, any additional debate would be subject to Trump actually showing up on September 10. We’re not playing his games,” a Harris campaign aide told Newsweek in a Sunday morning email.
Great post. I truly hope I’m wrong, but I’ve been trying to temper people’s expectations when they seem to be expecting Harris to annihilate Trump in a debate.
She has grown incredibly as a public speaker compared to only a few years ago, so maybe she is getting coaching and is better now.
But like you say, her experience comes from attacking out of a position of authority in a setting that strictly enforces decorum. She has none of that in a debate, and we can expect the moderators to do their usual worst. Trump will give her no respect, will talk (shout, more likely) over her and pay no heed to truth - comfortable with knowing live fact-checking won’t happen.
Her only path to victory is to stare him down and put him in his place on merit and out of a display of personal authority. It’s a very different prospect than being a courtroom prosecutor.