Trump claims he’s ‘probably’ is likely to discuss Harris but he could’make the case that Harris should the opposite.’ Her team says she’s worried

Vice-President Kamala Harris’ campaign says former President Donald Trump is scared to engage in a debate with her

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is apparently moving away from his earlier pledge to engage with vice president Kamala Harris and is questioning the importance of a gathering and stating that he “probably” will participate in a debate, but “can argue against it” -and her campaign has reacted to declare that the vice president is “scared.”

Trump during an interview on Fox News Channel that aired Monday night, was asked repeatedly about his commitment to debate with Harris before delivering a more squisier response than he has in the past.

The Republican ex-president was prepared to engage with the president Joe Biden when Biden was the Democratic candidate after months of claiming Biden was not mentally ready for the contest or the presidency. However, after Biden was eliminated from running and Harris was poised to become one of the Democratic Presidential candidate Trump is now questioning premise of the initial debate, which he had agreed to with Biden. He has suggested that the September. 10th debate, which airs on ABC News should be moved to a different network declaring ABC “fake media.”

In an interview with journalists, Trump was asked if the president would agree to debate Harris at a minimum. Trump replied: “Oh, yes, absolutely. I’d love to do it,” and he said there was a need to discuss.

In the interview on Monday, anchor Laura Ingraham repeatedly pressed Trump regarding whether he’d engage in the debate.

“I want to do a debate. But I’m also able to declare this. Everyone recognizes me as a person. Now, everyone knows who she is.” Trump said.

Trump finally declared, “The answer is yes I’ll likely eventually be discussing.”

He continued for about an entire minute, stating that any discussions should be conducted prior to early voting beginning in the states. Then He added “The truth is that it’s true, but I could argue for not taking it on.”

Trump has sat out debates prior to even the entire 2024 Republican presidential primary debates. Trump initially refused to participate, claiming that the time was not right and questioning the location of another after which he finally made it clear that he was not going to participate in any debate.

Harris Campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa has accused Trump of avoiding the possibility of a confrontation with his opponent.

“It’s evident from tonight’s evasion of questions and he’s worried he’ll have the burden of defending the running partner’s bizarre comments about females and his demands to stop elections in America in a debate with his vice-president,” Moussa said.

It was reported that the Republican candidate also appeared in the interview on Monday to clarify remarks he made at a conservative party during which he assured all Christians who gathered at the event that “won’t need to cast a vote” when he is elected.

He advised Christians who he says do not vote in large numbers to cast their ballots “just this time” and then added, “You won’t have to continue to.”

In the span of four years, he told us: “It’ll be fixed, it’ll be okay. You won’t need to be voting for a while, beautiful Christians.”

He said a few minutes later: “In four years, you’ll never have to cast a again vote. We’ll fix it and you’re no longer going to have to be voting.”

The comments caused alarm among Democrats as well as others who noted Trump’s tendency to use an authoritarian tone and his previous statements that he’d only become an authoritarian on “day one” and his conduct following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election in which Trump refused to accept the outcomes as he sought to reverse the results.

Trump’s supporters and his campaign provided a variety of reasons for his remarks and Ingraham asked him to clarify what he meant by.

“They don’t vote and I’m trying to explain that to them. “You’re not allowed to vote. This is the time to vote. I’ll make sure that the country is clean. There will be no need to vote any more. I’ll no longer require the vote of anyone,” Trump said.

Ingraham asked whether he meant Christians don’t have to support him since his term will be limited to four years as president.

Trump began his response by addressing the voting rate of Christians as well as gun owners and Ingraham interrupted him to ask for his answer.

“Don’t be worried regarding the future. Make sure to vote. You need to cast your vote on the 5th of November. Then, you won’t need to think about voting any more. I don’t care, because we’ll fix it the country. The country will be restored and we won’t require your vote as honestly, we’ll be a family. If you’re not ready to vote, it’s fine,” Trump said.

Trump made similar remarks in the last month at a separate Christian-focused gathering, where he expressed his frustration with the vote participation rates of Christians and encouraged Christians to vote in the elections.

“In the next four years you won’t need to be a voter, right? For four years from now, you don’t have to vote. I’m not concerned,” He stated.

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Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon, a reporter from West Palm Beach, Fla. Contributed to this story.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.