Vice President Kamala Harris has refused a third debate former President Donald Trump proposed, Breitbart reported. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has only agreed to one debate with his GOP counterpart, Sen. J.D. Vance.
The Harris campaign has attempted to make it seem like Trump is the one running from debating her. This is patently false, as Harris was reluctant to agree to the number of debates until this week.
Trump proposed three on different dates and networks after President Joe Biden stepped aside and allowed Harris to take his place. The Republican candidate offered to face off with Harris on Sept. 4 on Fox, Sept. 10 on NBC News, and Sept. 24 on ABC News.
On Thursday, the Democratic candidate finally said she would agree to two debates, with the first on Sept. 10 leading to another date in October as long as he shows up. Notably, she declined to spar with him on Fox or NBC.
Besides refusing a third debate for herself, Harris has agreed to just one for Walz versus Vance. The Ohio Republican shared the statement on X, formerly Twitter. "Tim Walz refused to deploy!" Vance captioned an image of the statement, playing on previous disputes about Walz's military service claims.
Tim Walz refuses to deploy! https://t.co/KqGkm3nOHQ
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 15, 2024
"Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1, and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October," Michael Tyler, campaign communications director, wrote in the statement.
"Voters deserve to see the candidates for the highest office in the land share their competing visions for our future. The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now."
This accusation about playing games is laughable, considering that Harris is a last-minute replacement candidate after the sitting president was likely pushed out of the position. Moreover, Harris and Walz are the ones shying away from a matchup, considering both have agreed to fewer debates than proposed by the GOP candidates.
Fox News shared Trump's response which became an opportunity to point out her glaring problems. In a post to Truth Social, Trump said he's "not surprised" by her refusal to face him because she can't "defend her record setting Flip-Flopping" on issues like "her statements that THERE WILL BE NO FRACKING IN PENNSYLVANIA and her HORRIBLE Performance on the Border."
Harris has been in office with Biden for the last four years, but now she's attempting to distance herself from his record. Biden is an unpopular president, and until the media started propping her up, Harris was even more disliked.
Now, she's also forced to back peddle on the radical agenda that defined her previous bid for the Democratic nomination in 2020. As the New York Post reported, Trump is correct that Harris has reversed her opinion on fracking and illegal immigration strategy, but she's also backed off on Medicare for All.
In fact, her chameleon-like habits were something Biden mocked her for during the 2020 primary race. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) rightly described Harris' agenda at that time as something "cobbled together to address various poll numbers."
With the media propping her up, Harris hasn't had to answer for much. The problem for her is that a debate puts her agenda front and center, and the more people hear her speak, the less they will want to vote for such a radical.
