Tipsheet

The Harris-Walz Campaign Is Causing All Kinds of Confusion About the Debates

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 16, 2024 4:30 PM

With the presidential and vice presidential debates fast approaching, the Harris-Walz campaign sure looks to be causing all kinds of confusion. In a statement from Thursday afternoon, the Kamala HQ X account claimed there were three debates total agreed to, though former and potentially future President Donald Trump will actually show up for three presidential debates between him and Vice President Kamala Harris, and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) will show up for two vice presidential debates between him and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN).

"The debate about debates is over. Donald Trump's campaign accepted our proposal for three debates -- two presidential and a vice presidential debate," the statement began. It then went on to raise the possibility of Trump being the one who wouldn't show up. 

"Voters deserve to see the candidates for the highest office in the land share their competition visions for our future," the statement also claimed, as it then warned about candidates "play[ing] games" and said it said Trump and Vance were the "insecure and unserious" ones. 

"Those games end now," the statement concluded.

Such a statement is rather laughable, given that the Harris-Walz campaign has been slow to put out policy positions, and the ones that the campaign has announced are particularly problematic. Further, Harris has stolen many of her policy views from Trump and Vance. So much for "competing visions."

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In a statement for the Daily Caller, Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for the Trump campaign, also said that the Harris-Walz campaign was lying:

“Let’s be clear: President Trump will be on the debate stage THREE times with Fox News, ABC and NBC/Telemundo. Likewise, Senator Vance will show up to debate Tim Walz on TWO occasions, on September 18 with CNN and October 1 with CBS. If Harris and Walz don’t show up, an empty podium can stand in their place, proving to the American people just how weak they are,” Leavitt continued.

...Leavitt told the Caller that there has not been a proposed October debate discussed, despite the Harris campaign’s statement.

“There’s been no proposal from a network for an October debate. They’re just throwing that out there needlessly,” Leavitt told the Caller.

“President Trump committed to three debates. Kamala should commit to the same three debates. We both, both campaigns, received the exact same debate invitations from those three networks,” she added.

...

The only debate both sides have locked in without a doubt is the Sept. 10 debate on ABC News. The Harris campaign seemingly wants to push the second debate to October, after which many Americans will already have been able to vote early, in some states for weeks.

The Trump War Room also put out a post explaining the debates, who has agreed to what, and who is "too afraid" to debate.

Democrats have been claiming for weeks that Trump is too afraid to debate and has reneged on debate agreements. However, it's worth reminding that Trump had agreed to debating President Joe Biden, who was forced out of the race by his fellow Democrats less than a month after his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump. It was Biden who in May actually proposed such a debate, with his campaign insisting on specific terms.

On Thursday, as Leah covered, Vance responded to Walz's post about an October 1 vice presidential debate, indicating he'll be there. He'll also show up for an September 18 vice presidential debate moderated by CNN.