Fox proposes alternate debate date to Trump, Harris camps

Fox’s conservative commentary network has proposed a Sept. 17, 2024, debate to both the Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns.

The network notified both teams of the opportunity in a letter July 24, 2024.

In the proposal, the network said that, under its debate, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would serve as moderators and the event would take place somewhere in Pennsylvania.

The network said it is open to discussing rules for the debate, including whether or not it would have an audience. 

ABC News had worked out an agreement with Trump and then-candidate President Joe Biden to host a debate Sept. 10, 2024. 

That deal, however, is up in the air since it was landed on when Biden was still running. 

Trump, meanwhile, has said is willing to debate Harris, but would prefer Fox handle the broadcast, as opposed to what he labels as a “biased” ABC.

“My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus (his name for George Stephanopoulos), sometime in September,” he wrote on his right-leaning social network Truth Social. “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. Thank you! DJT”

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ABC’s deal with Trump and Biden had included having “ABC World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis co-moderate. Stephanopoulos worked in senior roles for Democratic President Bill Clinton. 

“ABC Fake News is such a joke, among the absolute WORST in the business. They try to make Crooked Joe into a brave warrior because he didn’t have the ‘guts’ to fight it out — He quit!” Trump wrote later on Truth Social.

Trump did not clarify why a debate on Fox would be any less biased.

Although Fox has put forth the idea, the notion of it hosting a debate is still very much up in the air as of this writing.

None of the parties involved are obligated to participate in either proposed debate and it would ultimately require Trump, Harris and a host network from agreeing to on a date, location and rules to get a debate officially on the books. Even then, it’s always possible for one or both candidate to pull out at the last minute. 

It’s also possible that both the proposed ABC and Fox debates take place. 

During the 2020 election, the final Trump-Biden debate was canceled after Trump came after his COVID-19 diagnosis and he refused to participate in a remote format.