During his hour-long news conference last week, Trump announced he has agreed to a Sept. 10 debate with Harris. He also said his presidential campaign is requesting two more debates with his Democrat opponent before Election Day.
That first presidential debate, now four weeks away, was originally meant for President Joe Biden before he was pushed out as the Democrat nominee by his own party. With the debate date still on the calendar, Harris repeatedly taunted Trump as a coward when he refused to commit to it for weeks.
Trump last week announced he has proposed a debate sponsored by Fox News on Sept. 4 and an NBC News debate on Sept. 25.
In a reply on X, Harris bragged that Trump has “finally committed to debating me on September 10,” but she did not mention the other two dates.
Looking ahead to the Sept. 10 debate, Washington Times columnist Robert Knight predicts ABC will attempt to help Harris and also attempt to stop Trump from using the debate to talk directly to the American people.
“She's got the media as a very reliable filter protecting her from her worst excesses,” Knight tells AFN. “But in a debate format, as we saw in the Trump-Biden debate, there's nothing to cover up inadequacies."
Asked his view for the Sept. 10 debate, longtime political activist Bob Vander Plaats tells AFN Harris has more to win or lose. That is because, until just three weeks ago, she was in the background and was largely ignored but has now become the presumptive nominee and potentially the next U.S. president.
“I think these debates are crucial,” he observes. “And the reason is this campaign has been so truncated with Biden dropping out of the race and Kamala becoming the Democrat nominee.”
Vander Plaats, who leads the Iowa-based Family Leader organization, predicts the public will see a “restrained” Trump at the upcoming debate rather than the sarcastic, in-your-face Trump. That more reserved version of Trump, he says, is what voters want to see because they want to see his vision for a second term.
“I think you’ll see a very presidential Donald Trump,” he says, “and I think that will play well to America.”
Meanwhile, according to Knight, he predicts voters will not see any more presidential debates after the first one because Harris will be one-and-done after that.
“My guess is that she'll refuse to do the Fox debate, knowing that the media won't hold her accountable for that,” he says. “It'll be a blip for a while but the media aren't going to make a lot out of Fox being snubbed because they hate Fox."
