Trump doubles down on pushing second debate away from ABC
Former President Trump is pushing for the second presidential debate to be hosted by a network other than ABC, accusing it of bias against him as he shifts his attacks to Vice President Harris ahead of November.
"ABC Fake News is such a joke, among the absolute WORST in the business," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform overnight Monday. "They try to make Crooked Joe into a brave warrior because he didn’t have the 'guts' to fight it out — He quit!"
"They then tried to make 'Sleepy' look like a great President - he was the WORST, and Lyin’ Kamala into a competent person, which she is not. ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, is not worthy of holding a Debate, of which I hope there will be many!" the former president added.
ABC is currently slated to host a second presidential debate on Sept. 10, a clash both Trump and President Biden had agreed to.
Biden dropped out of the race Sunday following a disastrous debate performance late last month, endorsing Harris who late Monday won enough delegates to secure the party's nomination for president this fall.
Trump has suggested that Fox News, the top-watched cable network, should instead host a second presidential debate between Harris and himself.
"Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC," the former president wrote in a post just hours after Biden quit the race.
Trump has long ridiculed Fox over its coverage of him, criticizing the network Monday for putting Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) on its air.
"Where is his Chinese Spy girlfriend? What is wrong with FoxNews? It’s RINO Paul Ryan’s fault," Trump said in reference to the former GOP House speaker who sits on the board of the network's parent company.
The former president nonetheless appeared on the network Monday night with his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) for an exclusive interview with primetime pundit Jesse Watters.
During an interview with ABC News earlier this week, RNC chair Michael Whatley was pressed by anchor David Muir on whether Trump would show up to the planned Sept. 10 debate if Harris was his opponent.
"I'll defer to the president in terms of any of the details," Whatley said. "But we've made it clear that we welcome that debate because we want to talk about the contrast between the Biden Harris agenda and Donald Trump's agenda."