ABC News reports that both Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic counterpart Kamala Harris have agreed to meet for a debate on September 10.
The broadcaster’s announcement on Thursday came shortly after Trump said a press conference that he had agreed to three debates with Harris in September on various networks.
Trump’s decision comes just days after he posted on his social media that he would not appear on the network, citing a lawsuit he filed. His decision sets up a highly anticipated moment in an election in which the first debate had led to a massive reversal in the race – Democratic President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election campaign and endorsed Harris.
“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said Thursday. “I’m looking forward to the debates because I think we need to get things right.”
On social media site X later on Thursday, Harris wrote “I heard that Donald Trump is fully committed to debating me on September 10th. I look forward to it.”
At a private fundraiser in Paris on Thursday, Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, who was in Paris as head of the U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics, said he “can’t wait” to see his wife debate Trump.
Fox News has also proposed a debate between Harris and Trump for September 4, and NBC News is aiming to broadcast such a debate on September 25. During an appearance in Michigan, Harris said she was “glad to have this conversation” about another debate.
Trump also said he wants his vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, to debate Harris’s preferred running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on CBS, which is currently discussing possible dates for that meeting.
According to ABC, David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the contest on September 10, the same date that Trump and Biden had agreed to hold their second and final debate before Biden’s decision put that event in question.
Any debate is likely to take on added significance as polls show a neck-and-neck race between the former president and the current vice president. Although Harris has been riding a wave of enthusiasm among Democrats since taking over from Biden, she has yet to appear at a press conference or give an interview to a journalist.
Republicans are already making it an issue. In a post on X when Trump was in his press conference on Thursday, Vance said Harris was hiding behind a teleprompter. “It’s been 18 days since she took real questions from the media,” he wrote.
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Associated Press writers Jocelyn Noveck in Paris and Darlene Superville in Romulus, Mich., contributed to this report. David Bauder covers media for AP. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.
