{"id":30308,"date":"2024-07-30T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30308"},"modified":"2024-07-30T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T03:24:02","slug":"trump-says-he-probably-will-debate-harris-but-can-make-a-case-for-not-her-team-says-hes-scared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30308","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he \u2018probably\u2019 will debate Harris but can \u2018make a case for not.\u2019 Her team says he\u2019s scared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump seems to be backing away from his earlier commitment to debate Vice President Kamala Harris<\/u><\/a>, questioning the value of a meetup and saying he \u201cprobably\u201d will debate but he \u201ccan also make a case for not doing it\u201d \u2014 prompting her campaign to say he\u2019s \u201cscared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired Monday night, was pressed several times about committing to debating Harris before giving a squishier answer than he had in recent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican former president had been willing to debate President Joe Biden<\/u><\/a> when Biden was the Democratic nominee after months of suggesting that the president was not mentally up for the matchup \u2014 or the presidency. But after Biden dropped out of the race and Harris became poised to be the Democratic presidential candidate, Trump has been questioning the terms of the original debate he agreed to with Biden. He has suggested the Sept. 10 debate on ABC News should be moved to a different network, calling ABC \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, in a phone call with reporters, Trump was asked if he\u2019d commit to debating Harris at least once. He responded: \u201cOh, yes, absolutely. I\u2019d want to,\u201d and he said there was an obligation to debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interview Monday, host Laura Ingraham repeatedly pressed Trump on whether he would commit to a debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to do a debate. But I also can say this. Everybody knows who I am. And now people know who she is,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump eventually said, \u201cThe answer is yes, I\u2019ll probably end up debating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on for a minute, saying any debates need to be held before early voting starts in states, and then he added, \u201cThe answer is yes, but I can also make a case for not doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has skipped debates before, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates<\/u><\/a>. He initially didn\u2019t participate after suggesting the timing was too early and then questioning the venue of another before eventually making it clear he would not participate in any of those debates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa accused Trump of continuing to dodge a face-off with his likely opponent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear from tonight\u2019s question-dodging: He\u2019s scared he\u2019ll have to defend his running mate\u2019s weird attacks on women<\/u><\/a> or his own calls to end elections in America in a debate against the vice president,\u201d Moussa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican candidate also sought in the interview Monday to clarify comments he made last week at a conservative event in which he told an audience of Christians that they \u201cwon\u2019t have to vote anymore\u201d after he\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged Christians, who he claims don\u2019t vote in high numbers, to vote \u201cjust this time,\u201d and said, \u201cYou won\u2019t have to do it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In four years, he said: \u201cIt\u2019ll be fixed, it\u2019ll be fine. You won\u2019t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added moments later: \u201cIn four years, you don\u2019t have to vote again. We\u2019ll have it fixed so good, you\u2019re not gonna have to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments drew alarm from Democrats and others who noted Trump\u2019s pattern of using authoritarian language<\/u><\/a>, his earlier comments that he would only be a dictator on \u201cday one\u201d and his behavior after losing the 2020 presidential election, in which he refused to accept the results<\/u><\/a> and sought to overturn them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s campaign and supporters offered various explanations for his comments, and Ingraham prodded him to explain what he meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t vote, and I\u2019m explaining that to \u2018em. \u2018You never vote.\u2019 This time, vote. I\u2019ll straighten out the country. You won\u2019t have to vote anymore. I won\u2019t need your vote,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingraham asked if he meant Christians won\u2019t need to vote for him because he will only have four years in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump started his answer by speaking about voting rates of Christians and gun owners, and Ingraham interrupted to ask him again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry about the future. Vote, on, you have to vote on November 5th. After that, you don\u2019t have to worry about voting anymore. I don\u2019t care because we\u2019re going to fix up \u2014 the country will be fixed and we won\u2019t even need your vote anymore because, frankly, we will have such love. If you don\u2019t want to vote anymore, that\u2019s OK,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump made similar comments last month at another Christian-focused event, in which he lamented the voting rates of Christians and implored them to participate in the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn four years, you don\u2019t have to vote, OK? In four years, don\u2019t vote. I don\u2019t care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump seems to be backing away from his earlier commitment to debate Vice President Kamala Harris, questioning the value of a meetup and saying he \u201cprobably\u201d will debate but he \u201ccan also make a case for not doing it\u201d \u2014 prompting her campaign to say he\u2019s \u201cscared.\u201d Trump, in an interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4254,1918,2302,1230],"class_list":["post-30308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-candidate","tag-debate","tag-harris","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30312,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30308\/revisions\/30312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}