Donald Trump’s running mate has refused to confirm that he will participate in an October 1 debate against his Democratic counterpart, saying that he would only do so if it was guaranteed not to be a “fake debate.”
“We’re not going to run and walk into a fake news media garbage debate,” JD Vance said in a Thursday morning interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham.
The Ohio Senator’s comments were made in response to Tim Walz’s recent offer for an October 1 debate.
Kamala Harris’s recently appointed running mate wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “See you on October 1, JD,” replying to an invitation by CBS News to host a vice-presidential debate in New York on either September 17, September 24, October 1 or October 8.
Ingraham asked Vance: “Senator, are you in?”
“Look, Laura, we’re certainly going to debate Tim Walz,” Vance said. “We just heard about this thing three hours ago, so we’re going to talk to them and figure out when we can debate.”
He went on to say that he is hoping for more than one vice-presidential debate, before criticizing the Kamala campaign’s reluctance to speak with members of the media.
“If you look at the way that we’ve run this campaign, Laura, Donald Trump and I are giving every media interview,” Vance said. “We’re talking to every audience that we can get in front of because our vision is so clear.
“It’s a shame that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign seems to run not just from the media, but from voters. And I think that again, the American people will see right through it.”
Ingraham then tried to pin the senator down on his commitment to debating Walz on the proposed date, saying: “Senator, is there any doubt that you will not be there on October 1st to debate Walz?”
“Look, Laura, we want to actually look at the debates, look at the moderators, talk about the rules a little bit,” Vance said, adding that he “strongly suspects” a debate will take place on October 1.
“But we’re not going to do one of these fake debates, Laura, where they don’t actually have an audience, where they don’t actually set the parameters in a right way where you can have a good exchange of ideas.”
Vance was likely referencing the June 27 debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden which took place without a live audience, the first time candidates had sparred in this format since 1976.
“In other words, we’re not going to run and walk into a fake news media garbage debate,” Vance added. “We’re going to do a real debate. And if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it.”
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