May 16 (UPI) — Vice president Kamala Harris has accepted a debate invitation from CBS News, scheduled for July 23 or Aug. 13, her office said Thursday.
“We look forward to the Trump campaign accepting one of these dates so that the full debate calendar for this campaign can be set,” the Biden campaign said of the vice presidential debate. Trump has yet to select a running mate.
The vice presidential debate announcement comes on the heels of announced debates for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, scheduled for June 27 and Sept. 10, which will be hosted by CNN and ABC News, respectively.
If the two sides agree on July 23, the vice presidential debate would come less than a week after the Republican National Convention, at which Trump would accept the party’s nomination for president. He has said he will announce his running mate before the convention.
The debate sets up a televised confrontation before either candidate’s nomination is formally complete and will be the first televised debate between the two since 2020.
The presidential debates will not be the usual format. Biden announced Wednesday morning that he would not participate in debates in the fall held by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
Instead, the president offered the Trump campaign a modified format, one that is hosted by a commercial TV network, but with no studio audience and with microphones that can be turned off.
Trump said that he was on board with any debate format, formal or otherwise.
“I’d be willing to take anybody you know, what difference does it make?” he told Salem radio host Hugh Hewitt.
The Trump campaign has not said whether it plans to accept either vice presidential debate option.