Trump hints at skipping ABC News debate with Harris

Washington: Amid a continuing poor show in polls, former US president Donald Trump has indicated that he may skip the presidential debate with Kamala Harris on September 10 on ABC News.

Continuing his yearslong tirade against the media, Trump in a post on his platform Truth Social said why he should debate Harris on “ABC Fake News” which he said is headed by the “Kamala’s best friend”. As has been his practice for years, he slandered Harris and ABC figures and insinuated that ABC would share questions with Harris ahead of the debate.

Even though Trump and his far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have attacked the media and peddled conspiracy theories for years, they have stepped up their attacks in recent wakes as Harris has consistently polled better than Trump. Last week, Trump’s running mate JD Vance had dubbed polls fake. Trump has agreed to take part in three presidential debates with Harris. The debate on ABC is scheduled for Sept. 10 and the tentative date for the debate on NBC News is September 25, according to CNN.

The debate on Fox, which was initially said to be hosted as early as Sept. 4, is not yet confirmed and is unlikely to be hosted in that date. Considering it is a conservative network with overt hostility to Harris, it is not certain if she will accept to debate Trump on that network. In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said that the polling against Harris was very good — a falsehood.

Almost all poll aggregators show that Harris ahead of Trump. The Decision Desk HQ-The Hill polls’ average shows Harris ahead at 49.5 per cent against Trump’s 45.9 per cent and FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate shows Harris ahead at 47.2 and Trump trailing at 43.7.