RNC Chair Counters Trump Complaints About ABC Debate: Welcome a Debate With ‘Kamala Harris or Anybody Else’

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Former President Donald Trump posted several times on Truth Social after he found out he would no longer be running against President Joe Biden , including a request to change the network hosting the second presidential debate to Fox News. But Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley seemed to say that Trump would be willing to debate his opponent “anywhere, anytime.”

Trump called ABC News “very biased” and said the September debate should be hosted by Fox News instead. But in an interview with ABC’s David Muir on Sunday, Whatley played down the request by saying that Trump was ready to debate. Muir flat-out asked him if his candidate would show up to the debate that was scheduled:

Muir: Michael, I know that you have been part of this behind the scenes. The RNC, the Republicans, the Donald Trump campaign had agreed to do a debate here in September on ABC up against President Biden. Now that it looks like it could potentially be Vice President Kamala Harris . You guys still game for this debate here on ABC, Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris, potentially?

Whatley: Yeah. President Trump has said that he would accept a debate anywhere, anytime, anyplace. You know, what we want to do is talk directly to the American people and talk about President Biden’s failures as a president. But those are now the Biden-Harris campaign failures. So whether it’s Kamala Harris or it’s anybody else, they have doubled down on every single one of the policies that we’ve seen the Biden and Harris administration adopt over the last four years that they have dismantled the most secure southern border and invited 10 million illegal immigrants to come across it. That they have put inflationary policies that have driven gasoline prices, grocery prices, and housing prices through the roof, and they’ve weakened our standing in the world. So Kamala Harris, any other candidate on the Democratic side of the aisle, has adopted those same platforms. They’re doubling down on the same issues. And we welcome that debate anywhere, anytime.

Muir: So just to laser in on that, if it is Kamala Harris who becomes the nominee here, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, he will show up in September here on ABC?

Whatley: You know, obviously, I’ll defer to the president in terms of any of the details that that they want to have with it. But we’ve made it very clear that we welcome that debate, because we want to talk about the contrast between the Biden-Harris agenda and Donald Trump’s agenda, where he is going to unite America and lead us into a bolder future.

While Harris is not yet the official nominee of the Democratic party, several have expressed their support and announced their endorsement for the current Vice President.