Advisers to former President Donald Trump said they would not commit to another debate, one they had already agreed to participate in, now that the Democrats have changed candidates from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden and Trump had agreed to two general election debates, the first of which took place June 27. Biden’s performance was so calamitous that it began a four-week drumbeat towards his departure from the race.

The two men agreed months ago to a second debate, to be held on September 10, and hosted by ABC News. Trump complained at the time that they should have even more.

But Biden announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the race, and within 48 hours, nearly the entire Democratic Party had coalesced around Harris as the nominee to compete against Trump, the Republican nominee for the third straight presidential election. The last major Democrat to endorse Harris — former President Barack Obama — did so on Friday.

Nonetheless, in a statement issued late on Thursday, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, maintained that there was “continued political chaos surrounding” Biden and the Democrats, so “general election debate details cannot be finalised until Democrats formally decide on their nominee”.

The statement insisted that many in the Democratic Party — including Obama — think that Harris cannot beat Trump and that “they are still holding out for someone ‘better’.” The statement added: “Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”

The statement came after Harris recommitted to the ABC News debate. “I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on the debate stage,” she told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, saying that Trump was “backpedalling” to get out of the debate.

After the Trump campaign issued its statement, Harris posted on X, “What happened to ‘any time, any place?’” referring to Trump’s insistence that he would debate Biden whenever and wherever.

New York Times News Service