Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Thursday said he now agrees to debate Democratic rival Tim Walz on two occasions after previously appearing reluctant to commit to a faceoff.
“Not only do I accept the CBS debate on October 1st, I accept the CNN debate on September 18th as well,” the Ohio Republican wrote in a social media post directed at Walz. “I look forward to seeing you at both!”
Walz has so far not said whether he agrees to the proposed CNN event, but on Wednesday he confirmed his acceptance of CBS News’ invitation to debate. The CBS event is set to take place in New York City with anchors Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan moderating, the network confirmed.
On Thursday, the Walz-Harris campaign released a statement reaffirming Walz’ commitment to the Oct. 1 debate.
“The debate about debates is over,” the statement reads. “Donald Trump’s campaign accepted our proposal for three debates — two presidential and a vice presidential debate. Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October.”
Interestingly, the September date coincides with a sentencing hearing in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
Vance also said, “The American people deserve as many debates as possible,” adding that this is why Trump has challenged Vice President Kamala Harris to square off in three debates.
However, both Vance and Trump have previously appeared unwilling to commit to debating their Democratic opponents in the White House race.
Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Wednesday evening, Vance appeared evasive about the prospect of debating Walz.
“I strongly suspect we’re going to be there on October the 1st, but we’re not going to do one of these fake debates, Laura, where they don’t actually have an audience there, where they don’t actually set the parameters in a right way, where you can have a good exchange of ideas,” Vance said.
When Joe Biden was still in the race, the president and Trump had agreed to two debates: one hosted by CNN in June, followed by a second on ABC News in September.
However, Biden’s poor performance in CNN’s Atlanta debate led to his withdrawal from the presidential race, laying the groundwork for Harris to take over.
After that, Trump at first said that he would not appear at the ABC debate, citing the change at the top of the Democratic ticket, but later changed his mind and recommitted to showing up at the event.
During a press conference last week, Trump said he was also looking to debate Harris on Fox News on Sept. 4 and NBC News on Sept. 25. Harris has not said whether she agrees to participate in those additional debates with the former president.
