Trump has previously skipped the debates, including all 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.

Chapin, SC: Donald Trump has announced he will pull out of a planned September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC, preferring a debate on Fox News instead. The move casts doubt on the possibility of a platform meeting between the candidates ahead of the November elections.

In a series of posts on Truth Social late Friday, the Republican candidate and former president announced he had canceled his commitment to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC, citing the end of Democratic President Joe Biden's campaign after a poor showing in his initial debate.

Trump has announced that he will appear on Fox News in Pennsylvania on September 4 under the “same” rules as his debate with Biden, but this time in front of a full audience. He said he would hold a “major town hall” on Fox News if Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, did not agree to a new network and date.

Harris spokesman Michael Tyler noted that Trump is “running scared and trying to back out of talks he's already agreed to in favor of Fox News.” It was not immediately clear whether ABC would shift its Sept. 10 program to the Harris Town Hall in Trump's absence. Tyler said Harris is committed to the time slot and will look “one way or another to get an opportunity to speak to a prime time national audience.”

In a subsequent Truth social post on Saturday afternoon, Trump said of Harris, “I'll see her on September 4th or I won't see her at all.”

Trump has been sparring with Harris since entering the presidential race. He had told reporters he was bound to hold the debate but said in a recent Fox News interview that he thought the American people “already knew everything” about both candidates. Harris pressed Trump to keep a commitment he made when Biden was in the race. Harris recently dared him to “speak to my face” in light of Trump's criticism of her.

In his Truth Social posts, Trump cited a claim against ABC News that his involvement in the network's debates was a “conflict of interest.” Trump sued the network in March after anchor George Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump was “responsible for the rape.” A New York jury found advice columnist E. Jean Carroll found Trump responsible for sexual assault but denied her claim that she was raped.

But two months after Trump filed the lawsuit, he agreed to a September 10 debate on ABC as well as a June 27 debate on CNN that helped push Biden out of the race. David Muir and Lynsey Davis, not Stephanopoulos, are set to host ABC's debates.

Trump has previously skipped the debates, including all 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.

(with AP input)