‘She’s DUMB!’: Feud between Trump and Harris gets personal as campaigns refuse to budge on presidential debate

The tone between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is getting personal and nasty, with each candidate accusing the other of being a coward.

A fresh row has erupted between US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris over the potential terms of a televised debate, with each accusing the other of cowardice.

Mr Trump, the Republican nominee, initially agreed to attend two debates against President Joe Biden, on June 27 and September 10, hosted by CNN and ABC News, respectively.

The first of those debates went so catastrophically wrong for Mr Biden that it contributed, more than any other event, to his decision to quit the race, under pressure from senior leaders within his own party who felt he was incapable of winning the election.

He has been replaced as the Democratic nominee by Ms Harris, the Vice President, who wants to go ahead with the previously scheduled September 10 debate. Mr Trump does not.

New Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Picture: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP

Instead, he has proposed a debate on Fox News, with different moderators and a different set of rules, on September 4.

The Trump campaign claims Ms Harris is too “scared” to debate him. Similarly, the Harris campaign claims the former president is “running scared”. For now, it seems, the pair are at an ugly impasse, essentially trading barbs of: “I know you are, but what am I?”

Trump demands change in venue, moderators, rules

In May, ABC News announced the criteria for its debate. To make it onto the stage, candidates had to be registered with the Federal Election Commission; have qualified to be on the ballot in enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes required to win the election; and have received at least 15 per cent of the vote in four separate national polls.

Mr Biden and Mr Trump would have qualified under those rules (the same goes for Ms Harris now), while independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr would have missed out.

While no names were specified Mr Trump did, obviously, agree to the debate believing Mr Biden would be his opponent.

That changed last month when Mr Biden announced his withdrawal from the race. The Democrats swiftly coalesced behind Ms Harris as their new nominee.

Joe Biden, in the Oval Office, speaking to Americans about his decision to withdraw. Picture: Evan Vucci/AFP

Ms Harris confirmed that she wished to go ahead with the September debate, telling reporters “I’m ready”, but Mr Trump hesitated, arguing he could not be sure who the Democrats would even put on stage, given the chaos of previous weeks.

He also cited his ongoing defamation case against ABC News’ lead political anchor George Stephanopoulos, whom he has taken to calling “Slopadopolus”.

“My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September,” Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on Fox News, rather than very biased ABC. Thank you!”

Mr Trump is suing Mr Stephanopoulos over his claim, on air, that a jury in New York concluded the former president “raped” writer E. Jean Carroll. A jury in fact found Mr Trump liable for sexual abuse and battery of Ms Carroll.

The judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, said in a subsequent ruling that Mr Trump had “raped” Ms Carroll “in the broader sense of the word, as people generally understand it, though not as it is narrowly defined by New York State law”.

Mr Trump and Mr Stephanopoulos during a televised event in the last election campaign, in 2020. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

‘She’s really DUMB!’: Row gets personal

On Saturday, US time, Mr Trump again hopped on Truth Social to announce he had “agreed with Fox News to debate Kamala Harris” on September 4.

“The debate was previously scheduled against Sleepy Joe Biden on ABC, but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant, and I am in litigation against the ABC Network and George Slopadopolus, thereby creating a conflict of interest,” he said.

(The litigation in question was already umderway when he agreed to the September 10 debate, for what that’s worth.)

“The Fox News debate will be held in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at a site in an area to be determined.

“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!”

The two previously scheduled debates, including the one that kneecapped Mr Biden’s candidacy in June, were to occur without an audience.

Ms Harris responded to this announcement by bringing up Mr Trump’s previous boast that he would debate his opponent “any time, any place”, though we should note he was talking about Mr Biden when he made that comment.

“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space’,” the Vice President said.

“I’ll be there on September 10, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”

Mr Trump speaking at an event last week. Picture: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP

In a statement, the Harris campaign got a touch more personal.

“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to, and is running to Fox News to bail him out,” it said.

“He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on September 10. The Vice President will be there one way or the other to take the opportunity to speak to a primetime national audience.

“We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have already agreed to. Mr Any time, anywhere, any place should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th.”

And that statement, in turn, prompted Mr Trump to return fire.

“Kamala Harris doesn’t have the mental capacity to do a REAL debate against me, scheduled for September 4 in Pennsylvania,” he wrote.

“She’s afraid to do it because there’s no way she can justify her Corrupt and Open Borders, the Environmental Destruction of our Country, the Afghanistan Embarrassment, Runaway Inflation, Terrible Economy, High Interest Rates and Taxes, and her years-long fight to stop the words ‘Merry Christmas’.

“I’ll see her on September 4 or I won’t see her at all.”

In a subsequent post, Mr Trump called Ms Harris a “Low IQ individual”.

“Does anyone notice that Kamala Harris doesn’t do interviews? That’s because she’s really DUMB!” he said.

“She has an extremely Low IQ, and our Country does not need someone who is unable to put two sentences together.

“She can’t, and besides, we just got finished with that – his name is Sleepy Joe Biden!”

Any agreement between the campaigns here appears to be an increasingly remote possibility.

Twitter: @SamClench

Originally published as ‘She’s DUMB!’: Feud between Trump and Harris gets personal as campaigns refuse to budge on presidential debate