Harris Blindsided By President Biden's Campaign - Agreement Has Been Made
Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to participate in a single debate against the running mate chosen by former President Donald Trump.
The agreement followed an announcement by Fox News anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, who revealed that their network had offered to host a vice-presidential debate.
“This is the Wild West of debate proposals. We put out a debate proposal for a presidential debate. It was accepted by former President Trump. Not accepted yet by the Biden camp in early October, and now there’s a pitch specifically for the vice presidential debate that went out about half an hour ago to both campaigns, suggesting that in addition, Fox News Media has reached out to Virginia State University (VSU) as a possible location since it was selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates to be the first historically black college or university to host a presidential debate,” Baier reported.
“So we are making this formal request for a Vice President debate either July 23rd, August 13th, or after the RNC and DNC conventions, and just in the past few minutes as that has gone out I have received this. From former President Trump and the campaign,” he added before quoting a Trump Truth Social post regarding the veep debate.
“On behalf of the future vice president of the United States, who I have not yet chosen, we hereby accept the FOX vice presidential debate. Hopefully, at Virginia State University, the first historically black college or university to host a debate. Date to be determined. I urge Vice President Kamala Harris to agree to this, and make America Great Again,” Trump wrote.
“That’s from a former president and his campaign. So we will see about the Biden-Harris campaign response and where we go from here. Obviously, we have the CNN and ABC debate that has been agreed to already and we’ll see what else happens. This is a strange dynamic in getting these things locked down but we are doing it in short order,” Baier continued.
A Biden campaign official said last month that Harris had agreed to participate in the debate.
The Biden campaign informed CBS News that it had accepted the network’s invitation to participate in a vice-presidential debate in the studio on either of the two dates proposed by the outlet, July 23 or August 13, according to a campaign official.
“We look forward to the Trump campaign accepting one of these dates so that the full debate calendar for this campaign can be set,” the official added.
The proposed date of July 23 would occur less than a week after the conclusion of the Republican convention in Milwaukee, giving Trump’s running mate limited time to prepare for a debate with Harris, CNN reported.
However, Trump’s pick will likely be informed well before the convention, giving that person plenty of time to prepare.
Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday that there was a “pretty good chance” he would announce his vice-presidential pick at the convention in Milwaukee.
“I don’t say anything’s a 100 percent, but you’re getting pretty close. I’ll be doing it in Milwaukee,” he told TMJ4 News.
MacCallum and Baier discussed the “surreal” nature of scheduling a debate without knowing who one of the participants will be.
“Obviously, there’s always a vice-presidential debate, and you can’t imagine they wouldn’t want the sitting vice president of the United States to go head to head and defend the president’s administration and the work they have done against whoever former President Trump picks, right?” MacCallum said.
“That’s a little surreal, too, isn’t it? We are dealing with a stand-in. It’s basically we don’t know who this person will be yet but we accept on behalf of that vice-presidential nominee,” Baier responded.