Former US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had “reached an agreement” to hold the highly anticipated televised debate on September 10 against his Democratic opponent in the presidential election, Kamala Harris, two days after threatening not to participate.
• Also read: Kamala Harris to give first interview as candidate on CNN Thursday
• Also read: ‘Why would I debate Kamala Harris?’: Trump questions participation in upcoming debate
The current Vice President of the United States’ team, however, has not confirmed that the event will take place.
In his Truth Social network, the Republican candidate said he had “reached an agreement” with the Democratic team on the debate, which must be held on ABC under the same conditions as the confrontation organized on June 27 on CNN between Mr. Trump and the candidate at the time, Democratic President Joe Biden, he explains.
There was no audience in the studio at the time and the microphones of both candidates were cut off when their competitor spoke.
Mr Trump said ABC had assured him the debate, held in Philadelphia, would be “fair and just”.
M’s campaign teamme Harris had pushed for the candidates’ microphones to remain on throughout the program. The organization responded by accusing the billionaire of changing the rules of the game, remaining evasive about accepting the terms of the debate.
“Both candidates have publicly stated their willingness to debate with microphones unmuted throughout the debate in order to allow for real exchanges (…), but it appears that Donald Trump is allowing his team to contradict him,” said M’s camp.me Harris in a statement.
“Why would I debate Kamala Harris on this network?” the former president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, amid friction over microphone management.
Despite everything, the Republican assures that this question around the microphones “does not matter to me. I would probably prefer that (the microphones) be open.”
Kamala Harris’ campaign team, for its part, accused the Republican candidate’s entourage of wanting to protect him by demanding that the microphones be cut, because they “do not believe their candidate is capable of remaining presidential for 90 minutes.”
On Tuesday, in Truth Social, Mr. Trump also claimed that the Democrat had refused to hold a debate on September 4 on Fox News, the conservatives’ favorite channel, but that this meeting remained possible if Mme Harris “changed his mind.”
