Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz is refusing a second vice presidential debate held by left-leaning CNN, but Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign said it is willing to accept a second presidential debate against President Donald Trump in October under a specific condition.
Shortly after Vance accepted a CBS News debate on October 1, which Walz previously agreed to attend, Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign released a statement that ruled out a CNN debate on September 18 that Vance also said he would accept.
“The debate about debates is over,” said Michael Tyler, communications director for Harris-Walz 2024. He claimed former President Donald Trump‘s campaign accepted their proposal for three debates, including one hosted by ABC News on September 10. The third, Tyler added, would be another face-off between Harris and Trump in October — contingent on Trump showing up to the ABC debate.
Vance responded to the statement on X, alluding to the controversy over Walz embellishing his service record with the Army National Guard, claiming he carried weapons “in war” when he was never in combat and leaving his artillery unit before it received orders to deploy to Iraq.
“Tim Walz refuses to deploy!” said Vance, a U.S. Marines veteran who did serve in Iraq. “In all seriousness, if you want to be the VP of the United States, you should make your pitch directly to the American people. A debate is an opportunity to take your case to voters without a teleprompter or a script. Can’t imagine why anyone would say no.”
Earlier in the day, Vance announced that he had accepted the invitation to CBS News’ October 1 debate in New York City and dared Walz to appear for a second one held by CNN on September 18. “American people deserve as many debates as possible,” he declared in a post to X.
Walz had said he would show up to the October 1 debate on Wednesday, the same day CBS said it sent out its invitations to the candidates. CBS noted that it had provided three other dates — September 17, September 24, and October 8 — as possible times to hold the event. October 1 comes after early voting for the November election begins in some states.
Vance said in a Wednesday evening interview on Fox News he wanted to assess the proposed rules and moderators before making a decision. “We’re not going to walk into a fake news media garbage debate,” he said. He signaled having no audience at the venue would be a deal-breaker.
CBS publicly revealed the moderators on Thursday only after both candidates agreed to the October 1 date: “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell, and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan. All the rules of the VP debate were not publicly available as of press time.
In June, Trump faced President Joe Biden in a CNN debate with no audience and mic cuts. After Biden’s fumbling performance sparked a crisis of confidence among his allies, he stepped aside under pressure and Harris took the top spot on the Democratic Party’s ticket.
Trump and Harris are scheduled to have their first debate on September 10. That event is set to be hosted by ABC News. Trump has floated two other debates next month, one held by Fox News on September 4 and another held by NBC News on September 25, but Harris’ campaign has repeatedly indicated it would only consider a second presidential debate against Trump if the Republican nominee attends the ABC debate first.
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