Fox News Proposes Donald Trump-Kamala Harris Debate For September 17
Fox News has sent letters to the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris ampaigns proposing a presidential debate for September 17 in Pennsylvania.
“We are open to a discussion on the exact date, format and location — with or without an audience,” Jay Wallace, Executive Editor of Fox News Media, and VP Politics Jessica Loker wrote in the letters to both campaigns.
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They also recommended Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum to moderate the debate.
Trump and then-candidate Joe Biden had agreed to two debates: the CNN event on June 27 and an ABC News-sponsored debate on September 10. The status of the latter debate is unclear, as Trump recently has bashed ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos. The ABC News event was to be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis.
In May, the Biden campaign had set out criteria for a debate, including that any host network would have to have “hosted a Republican primary debate in 2016 in which Donald Trump participated, and a Democratic primary debate in 2020 in which President Biden participated — so neither campaign can assert that the sponsoring organization is unacceptable.” That criteria excluded Fox News and MSNBC.
A Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. The former president earlier this week told reporters he “absolutely” would debate Harris, but he also suggested that Fox News should host.
In their letter, Wallace and Loker noted that even though the network did not host a Democratic primary debate in 2016 or 2020, it did feature town halls with Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand.
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