Nearly two weeks before the presidential debate on ABC News, former President Donald Trump is raising questions about his participation.
Trump criticized a debate moderator on Sunday. He called Jonathan Karl's interview with Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton on "This Week" "ridiculous and biased." He also referred to the commentators on the panel as a group of "Trump haters."
Trump also questioned why he should debate Vice President Kamala Harris on the network, suggesting that panelist Donna Brazile may give Harris debate questions ahead of time, referencing a 2016 scandal when Brazile leaked town hall topics to Hillary Clinton's campaign. While Trump did not definitively say that he's backing out, he said the network has "a lot of questions to answer," adding, "stay tuned."
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The debate about debates comes as there is a discussion between the campaigns over adding another debate in October. The Harris campaign has also sought to make an issue of keeping microphones on during the debate. At the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, CNN shut off the microphones when candidates were not speaking. Those debate rules were agreed upon by the two candidates.
"We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast. Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own," Harris campaign senior communications adviser Brian Fallon said.
Trump's potential withdrawal from the debate comes as the momentum has shifted in the presidential race in the weeks following Biden's exit. Trump, who once held the lead in nearly every major national poll, now finds himself trailing most polls. Meanwhile, Harris is taking a fundraising edge into the final months of the campaign.
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The Harris campaign announced they brought in a record-shattering $82 million during the convention week alone. That is part of their roughly $540 million fundraising haul since she launched her campaign in mid-July. That is compared to the July fundraising haul for Trump at $139 million.
Trump recently garnered the endorsement of former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who announced last week he would exit the race. It's still too early to tell whether Kennedy's departure from the race will have any measurable impact on the race.
