Donald Trump said he will “probably” debate Vice President Kamala Harris, but said he “can also make a case for not doing it”.
In an interview with Fox News Channel, the former president was pressed several times about committing to debating Ms Harris before giving a less committed answer than he had in recent days.
The Republican candidate had been eager to debate President Joe Biden when he was the Democratic nominee after months of suggesting his rival was not mentally up for the meeting — or the presidency.
But after Mr Biden dropped out of the race and Ms Harris became poised to be the Democratic presidential candidate, Mr Trump has been questioning the terms of the original debate he agreed to, suggesting the September 10 debate on ABC News should be moved to a different network, calling ABC “fake news.”
Last week, in a phone call with reporters, Mr Trump said there was an obligation to debate when asked if he would commit to debating the vice president at least once.
In the interview on Monday, Fox host Laura Ingraham repeatedly pressed Mr Trump on whether he would commit to a debate.
“I want to do a debate. But I also can say this. Everybody knows who I am. And now people know who she is,” Mr Trump said, eventually adding: “The answer is yes, I’ll probably end up debating.
“The answer is yes, but I can also make a case for not doing it.”
Mr Trump has skipped debates before, including all of the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.
Ms Harris’ campaign spokesperson, Ammar Moussa, accused Mr Trump of continuing to dodge a face-off with his likely opponent.
“It’s clear from tonight’s question-dodging. He’s scared he’ll have to defend his running mate’s weird attacks on women or his own calls to end elections in America in a debate against the vice president,” Ms Moussa said.
Mr Trump also sought to clarify comments he made last week at a conservative event in which he told an audience of Christians that they “won’t have to vote anymore” after he is elected.
The comments drew alarm from Democrats and others who noted Mr Trump’s pattern of using authoritarian language, his earlier comments that he would only be a dictator on “day one” and his behaviour after losing the 2020 presidential election, in which he refused to accept the results and sought to overturn them.
His campaign and supporters offered various explanations for Mr Trump’s comments, and Ms Ingraham prodded him to explain what he meant.
“They don’t vote and I’m explaining that to them. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country. You won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote,” Mr Trump said.
“Don’t worry about the future. Vote, on, you have to vote on November 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore.
“I don’t care because we’re going to fix up, the country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore because, frankly, we will have such love. If you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s ok.”
