Trump questions fairness of next week’s debate at a town hall
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Hours after the Trump and Harris campaigns agreed to rules for their first presidential debate, former President Donald Trump sought to instill doubt that the debate would be fair, downplayed his need to prepare and suggested he was more worried about the network hosting the debate than his opponent.
Speaking at a Fox News town hall Wednesday night, Trump insisted that ABC News, which will host next week’s debate in Philadelphia, was “dishonest,” even though he agreed months ago to allow the network to host a presidential debate.
Pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris’ longtime friendship with a senior executive whose portfolio includes ABC News, Trump insisted without evidence that Harris was “going to get the questions in advance.” The network released agreed-upon rules that no topics or questions would be provided to either candidate or campaign.
Trump’s attempts to question the integrity of the debate echoed a similar effort that preceded his consequential debate in June with President Joe Biden that set off the president’s exit from the race. After taunting Biden into debating “anytime, anywhere, anyplace,” Trump sought to play down any potential political consequences as the debate neared by casting the network, moderators and rules as biased. ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yet even as he suggested the debate next week would be biased against him, Trump also tried to present himself as unconcerned about his first head-to-head confrontation with Harris since she became the Democratic nominee. He insisted that planning would only get him so far and that he would take a similar approach to Harris that he did to Biden.
“I let him talk — I’m going to let her talk,” Trump told the town hall’s moderator, Fox News host Sean Hannity. Trump, who has repeatedly mocked Harris’ intelligence and speaking style, added, “There are those that say that Biden is smarter than she is. If that’s the case, we have a problem.”
Trump’s town hall, in front of an audience in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, began with an interview by Hannity, a longtime Trump ally with whom the former president has a yearslong friendship. Trump then answered five prescreened questions from members of the audience, including the state’s Republican Senate candidate, David McCormick. The interview portion was broadcast on Fox News on Wednesday evening, and the audience questions are set to run Thursday evening.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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