Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, once again challenged Donald Trump to debate her, telling a roaring crowd in Atlanta on Tuesday night that he was feeling the pressure of running against her in November.
“So the momentum in this race is shifting, and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it — you may have noticed,” the vice president said at a campaign rally, as she pointed to Trump’s refusal to commit to a debate in September. “He won’t debate, but he and his running mate sure seem to have a lot to say about me.”
“Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” Harris said. “Because as the saying goes, ‘if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’”
Harris’ remarks seem designed to taunt Trump into debating her. The vice president has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the Trump campaign as it dithers the GOP nominee’s participation in a previously agreed-upon Sept. 10 debate, which it arranged with Joe Biden’s re-election campaign before he withdrew from the race.
On Thursday, Harris accused the Trump campaign of “backpedaling” on the scheduled debate, saying, “I think that the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage.” Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, later said it “would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”
The calculations for the Trump campaign have shifted dramatically since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris. Trump had previously challenged Biden to debate “anytime, anywhere, any place,” and the fallout of Biden’s disastrous showing at the June 27 debate also overshadowed his own blathering performance. Now, as his campaign tries to reorient its strategy for Harris, Trump, whose debate style is rich on insults and poor on substance, now faces the daunting prospect of taking on a former prosecutor known for her debate punches on live television. In an interview with Fox News this week, Trump himself waffled on the subject. He suggested there was no point debating Harris because “everybody knows who I am, and now people know who she is.” He then said he would “probably” debate Harris, but added that he “can also make a case for not doing it.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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