107 Days

by Kamala Harris

Trump had been saying he’d decide about debating me once I’d clinched the nomination. Sure enough, he released a statement on his Truth Social platform. It was classic Trump. Yes, he would debate me. But he’d reneged on the agreement negotiated for that debate. According to him, it would now be on September 4, not 10; it would be on Fox News, not ABC; and “the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his Party – BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!” I’m sure his team leaned on him to keep the rule that mics would be silenced during the other debater’s time. That was the one rule I wanted changed. I knew I could handle his disruptive asides, and I wanted viewers to see and hear how undisciplined and bullying he could be. His team knew that his crazy ranting didn’t play well, so they’d kept that requirement in place. The wording of his statement made it sound as if I’d agreed to all the other changes. Nope. We could sense an air of panic in the Trump campaign. That day we’d announced that we’d taken in $310 million in the last month alone, more than double his donations over the same period. So we decided to punch back hard. I responded that I would be in the ABC studio on September 10 whether he was there or not and would be glad to use the ninety minutes of airtime exclusively.