Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday committed to debating Vice President Kamala Harris, teasing another potential major moment in the 2024 race.
“I would be willing to do more than one debate, absolutely,” Trump said on a press call, per NBC News.
Trump said he “absolutely” wanted to debate the vice president. He added there is “an obligation” to debate her.
“I think if you’re in the Democratic nominee or Republican nominee, you really have an obligation to debate.”
Trump initially seemed like he was hesitant to keep a September debate that he had set with President Joe Biden after Biden’s seismic decision to drop out of the 2024 race. The former president and his allies have fumed about Biden’s exit. Trump has even suggested that Republicans should be refunded for money it spent attacking Biden.
“Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. Trump later said he hoped there would “many” debates.
Biden’s campaign reached a historic agreement with Trump’s campaign in May, which provided for two debates. Biden’s performance during the June debate was so disastrous that it sent his campaign into a spiral that it never recovered from. On Sunday, the president announced that he would end his reelection campaign. Biden endorsed Harris, who quickly locked up the support of top Democrats and a majority of delegates.
Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to The Associated Press, which has tracked her endorsements among the more than 4,000 Democratic delegates. She will not officially become the party’s presidential nominee until the national convention next month or during a virtual roll call vote beforehand.
No debate has ever affected a campaign like the first showdown between Trump and Biden. More than 51 million people watched. Harris’ historic candidacy and her unprecedented late-emerging candidacy could push ratings even higher.
It remains to be seen when Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Harris’ running mate will debate. Even before Biden dropped out, the two sides had yet to nail down a date for a VP debate.
The Biden-Trump debate agreement was historic because it took the power to organize debates away from the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates for the first time in decades. The commission has handled presidential and vice-presidential debate logistics for nearly 40 years. But both parties have soured on the nonprofit in recent years. In 2022, The Republican National Committee formally withdrew from the group.
A spokesperson for Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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