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Louise Thomas

Editor

Donald Trump has agreed to debate Kamala Harris on September 4 after the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee challenged her Republican counterpart.

Late on Friday, Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he had accepted an offer from Fox News to hold the debate in Pennsylvania with anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

“If for any reason Kamala is unwilling or unable to debate on that date, I have agreed with Fox to do a major Town Hall on the same 4 September evening,” Trump wrote.

Trump said the rules would be similar to his previous debate with Mr Biden - but include “a full arena audience”.

Last week, Harris said she was “ready” to go head-to-head with the former president on the debate stage, and accused him of “backpedaling” on his previous commitment to debate President Joe Biden on September 10 on ABC News.

Trump lamented on Friday that he was now having to face a new Democratic candidate after Biden announced last month he would withdraw his campaign for re-election and backed his vice president for the top of the ticket.

"I spent hundreds of millions of dollars, time, and effort fighting Joe, and when I won the debate, they threw a new candidate into the ring. Not fair," Trump posted on Truth Social. "But it is what it is!"

"Nevertheless, different candidate or not, their bad policies are the same, and this will be strongly revealed at the 4 September debate," he added.

Mr Trump emerged with a clear advantage from his 27 June debate with Mr Biden, whose faltering performance renewed voters' deep concerns about his age. The two had agreed to a second debate on 10 September but Mr Trump had so far avoided clarifying whether he would debate Ms Harris.

After Mr Biden dropped out of the race on 21 July and backed his vice president, Mr Trump said that he would not debate her because she was not the official candidate. He added that former president Barack Obama had yet to endorse her as proof of lack of support for her bid. A day later, Mr Obama endorsed Ms Harris, who on Friday secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

The debate had become a rallying cry for Ms Harris, who this week urged her Republican opponent to "reconsider" meeting her on the stage. "Because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face," Ms Harris said.

Mr Trump earlier said he didn't need to debate Ms Harris, because he was leading in the polls and voters already knew where he and his Democratic rival stood on issues.

“Well, I want to,” he told Fox Business Network. “Right now I say, ‘Why should I do a debate?’ I’m leading in the polls, and everybody knows her, everybody knows me.”

Meanwhile, Ms Harris said she was honoured to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the US. “The tireless work of our delegates, our state leaders, and our staff has been pivotal to making this moment possible,” she said.

The vice president reached the requisite 2,350 delegate votes on Friday afternoon during a virtual roll call vote ahead of this month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, according to DNC chair Jaime Harrison.

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