Former President Donald Trump privately feels as though Vice President Kamala Harris "trapped" him into accepting a debate schedule on her terms by falsely claiming they agreed to a schedule when they hadn't — and he's enraged about it, according to The New Republic.
The fireworks began Thursday, when a spokesman for the Harris campaign said Trump’s campaign "accepted our proposal for three debates — two presidential and a vice presidential debate."
"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," the Harris campaign said.
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But the Trump campaign, through Karoline Leavitt, told The Daily Caller this was not what they wanted.
“Let’s be clear: President Trump will be on the debate stage THREE times with Fox News, ABC, and NBC/Telemundo. Likewise, Senator Vance will show up to debate Tim Walz on TWO occasions, on September 18 with CNN and October 1 with CBS. If Harris and Walz don’t show up, an empty podium can stand in their place, proving to the American people just how weak they are,” she said.
Notably, the second Vance debate, which would be unusual for a vice presidential campaign schedule, would take place on the same day Trump is scheduled to be sentenced for his 34 felony counts in New York, assuming his efforts to delay or obstruct that proceeding do not succeed.
So far, the only debate both candidates are officially on record as agreeing to mutually is the ABC News debate in September. However, according to Paige Oamek, it is possible Trump could be planning to use Harris' personal relationship with ABC executive Dana Walden as an excuse to back out of doing that one.
"It seems like both sides are trying to paint the other as scared to debate, which may end up resulting in more and more appearances — or perhaps in none at all," wrote Oamek.