Trump says he reached deal with Harris on September 10 debate

Photo: Carolyn Kaster Associated Press Donald Trump, during a speech before the National Guard Association, Monday, in Detroit

Agence France-Presse in Washington

Published at 8:40 a.m.

• United States

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 presidential opponent Kamala Harris, two days after threatening not to participate.

The current vice president of the United States' team has not confirmed that the event will take place.

On his Truth Social network, the Republican candidate said he had “reached an agreement” with the Democratic team on the debate, which is to be held on ABC under the same conditions as the June 27 confrontation organized on CNN between Mr. Trump and the then candidate, Democratic President Joe Biden, he explains.

There was no audience present at the time in studio and the microphone of both candidates was cut off when their competitor was speaking.

Mr Trump said ABC had assured him the debate, held in Philadelphia, would be “fair and equitable.”

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Ms Harris’ campaign had pushed to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the program. The organization responded by accusing the billionaire of changing the rules of the game and was noncommittal about agreeing to the terms of the debate.

“Both candidates have publicly stated their willingness to debate with microphones unmuted throughout the debate to allow for real exchanges … but it appears Donald Trump is letting his team contradict him,” Ms Harris’ campaign said in a statement.

“Why would I debate Kamala Harris on this channel ?,” the former president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, amid friction over microphone management.

Despite everything, the Republican assures that this question around microphones “does not matter to me. I would probably prefer that (the microphones) be open.”

Kamala Harris’ campaign team accused the Republican candidate’s entourage of wanting to protect him by demanding that the microphones be cut, because they “don’t believe their candidate is capable of remaining president for 90 minutes.”

On Tuesday, on Truth Social, Mr. Trump also stated 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 Ms. Harris “changed her mind.”

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