Trump promises town hall in place of Fox debate Harris rejected

Former President Donald Trump is vowing to appear on Fox News on Sept. 4, even after Vice President Kamala Harris declined to participate in a debate on the network.

Trump had proposed three debates, a Sept. 4 debate hosted by Fox News, a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC News, and a Sept. 25 debate hosted by NBC News. The ABC News debate had previously been negotiated when President Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee. Harris’s campaign said she would participate in the ABC News debate, along with another debate in October, rejecting Trump’s other two proposed debates.

The former president, in a post on Truth Social late Monday, said he was “not surprised” Harris would turn down the Fox News debate, but he said he would do a “tele-town hall” with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Sept. 4 in Pennsylvania.

“Comrade Kamala Harris has just informed us that she will NOT do the FoxNews Debate on September 4th. I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in, including her statements that THERE WILL BE NO FRACKING IN PENNSYLVANIA and her HORRIBLE Performance on the Border, our ‘Border Czar,’ where millions of criminals and people from mental institutions and terrorists, have been allowed to pour into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted. It’s called, and she LOVES IT, an OPEN BORDER!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“Rather than the debate on September 4th, I have agreed to do a Tele-Town Hall, anchored by Sean Hannity, for Fox. It will take place in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — Details to follow!” he continued.

Trump and Harris will face off in the second presidential debate of the cycle but the first one between the two of them. The first debate hosted by CNN in June was between Trump and Biden, and Biden’s performance in that debate served as a catalyst for the pressure campaign within the Democratic Party to push Biden aside.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), will participate in a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.