US Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said on Thursday it will participate in a total of three debates this election season: Two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate.
In a statement quoted by The Hill, the campaign sought to put an end to the Trump campaign’s suggestion of additional debates before Election Day, declaring the “debate about debates is over.”
“Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” campaign communications director Michael Tyler said.
“Voters deserve to see the candidates for the highest office in the land share their competing visions for our future,” he added. “The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now.”
Harris has agreed to debate former President Trump on September 10 on ABC News. Trump has said he accepted two other proposed debates, one on September 4 on Fox News and another on September 25 on NBC News.
Thursday’s statement, however, made clear Harris will not partake in either the Fox or NBC debates, but would instead participate in an October debate with Trump, as long as he attends the September 10 debate, to which both Harris and Trump agreed last week.
On the vice presidential front, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz agreed on Wednesday to participate in an October 1 debate hosted by CBS News. On Thursday, Sen. JD Vance said he would participate in the CBS debate.
In accepting that date, Vance proposed a second one, on September 18, hosted by CNN. Thursday’s statement from the Harris campaign indicated there would only be one vice presidential debate, which is in line with historical norms.
Trump previously said that he would "absolutely" debate Harris, adding that he would be open to debating her more than once.
"I agreed to debate with Joe Biden. But I want to debate her and she’ll be no different because they have the same policies," Trump told reporters in late July.