Harris campaign attacks Trump again over ‘rolling back’ debate

Vice President Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 14, 2024.

Vice President Harris’ campaign is doubling down on attacks on former President Trump, accusing him of backing down at the next presidential debate.

Campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement first shared with The Hill that Harris will attend ABC’s Sept. 10 debate — which Trump and President Biden had both previously agreed to — regardless of the former president’s attendance.

“As Vice President Harris said last week, Americans deserve to hear from the two candidates running for the highest office in the land, and she will do that at the ABC debate in September,” Tyler said. “If Donald Trump and his team say anything other than ‘We’ll see you there,’ and it looks like they will, it will be a convenient but expected retreat from Team Trump. Vice President Harris will be there on September 10th — we’ll see if Trump shows up.”

Jason Miller, Trump’s senior adviser, told MSNBC on Sunday that Trump “will of course” debate the Democratic nominee, but that Democrats “need to choose who their ultimate nominee is going to be. That needs to be formalized before we schedule any debates.”

MSNBC host Chris Jansing pushed back against Miller, saying that Trump agreed to debates before the GOP nominee was formalized. Miller responded that Democrats need to “lock in” Harris.

Harris said last week that she was “ready to go” for a debate and accused Trump of backing down after he suggested he might not want to participate in the established ABC debate. Her campaign also portrayed Trump as “afraid” to do the debate.

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he would “absolutely” debate Harris, but indicated he may not be willing to participate in the ABC event. His campaign said Thursday that it would not agree to a general election debate with Harris until Democrats formally decide on their nominee.

Harris has received enough delegate support to be the presumptive Democratic nominee, and the party is expected to formally nominate her in a roll call vote as early as Thursday.