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Harris to Show Up to September 10 Debate

State of the Union: Trump had earlier announced that he was pulling out of the debates until the Democratic nomination was settled.
Kamala Harris at VP debate
Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

The presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris stated Monday that she will show up to the planned September 10 presidential debate, whether or not former President Donald Trump is there. 

Michael Tyler, Harris’s director of campaign communications, told the Hill on Monday that Harris intends to be present at the ABC-hosted debate, which was earlier agreed upon between Trump and President Joe Biden.

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“If Donald Trump and his team are saying anything other than ‘we’ll see you there’—and it appears that they are—it’s a convenient, but expected backtrack from Team Trump. Vice President Harris will be there on September 10—we’ll see if Trump shows,” Tyler said in his statement, referring to Trump’s announcement last week that he will remain uncommitted to any particular debate until the Democratic nominee is officially nominated.

The Trump campaign has rejected the idea that it has declined to debate. Trump’s senior advisor, Jason Miller, stated that Trump is ready to debate Harris. “The Democrats need to pick who their ultimate nominee is going to be, that needs to be formalized before we go and lock in all the debates,” Miller told MSNBC on Sunday. 

Likewise, on July 23, Trump said on a press call that he would like to have multiple debates with Harris. “I would be willing to do more than one debate actually,” Trump told the reporters, although he tempered his remarks by criticizing the planned host of the September 10 debate, “I don’t like the idea of ABC.” 

“I agreed to a debate with Joe Biden. But I want to debate her, they have the same policies,” Trump continued.While the ABC debate was the only other debate agreed upon between Trump and Biden, it is possible that there will be a debate with a different host and different date. On Wednesday, Fox News proposed hosting a debate between Trump and Harris in Pennsylvania on September 17.