Fox News Media has proposed a final presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump that would fall barely a week before Election Day, as both campaigns come to a close.
“This would present an opportunity for each candidate to make his or her closing arguments,” FOX News Media president & Executive Editor Jay Wallace and Vice President of Politics Jessica Loker wrote in a letter sent to both campaigns.
The debate, proposed for October 24 or 27 in the swing state of Pennsylvania, would feature Fox’s Brett Baier and Martha MacCallum as moderators and would be held without a live audience.
The Independent has reached out to both campaigns for comment on the debate proposal.
A debate could seal Harris’s projected three-point advantage over Trump — or provide the kind of campaign moment that changes the dynamics of the race and give Trump a way back in.
The vice president has signaled her willingness to go toe-to-toe with Trump in another debate, saying the candidates “owed it to voters.”
“This election and what is at state could not be more important,” she said at a rally last month.
Trump, for his part, said last month it’s “too late” for another debate and has waved away the idea of future bouts, though former adviser Chris Christie has argued the former president “needs” another chance in front of voters.
The Democratic National Committee has attempted to seize on Trump’s denials, putting up billboards around Pennsylvania accusing him of being a “chicken.”
“There’s no debate: Donald Trump’s a chicken,” one reads.
The first presidential debate between Trump and Harris featured a number of memorable moments, including a defensive Trump claiming he had “concepts of a plan” when pressed about how he would fulfill his long-time promise of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
During the match-up, the Republican also repeated the racist, false conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants in Ohio are eating neighborhood pets.
Though presidential debates are often dismissed as meaningless TV events with little power to change the election, this cycle they’ve proven quite influential.
Joe Biden’s lackluster performance in the first presidential debate of 2024 convinced many within the Democratic party he wasn’t fit to take on Trump, momentum that culminated in Harris eventually taking the top spot on the ticket.
The vice presidential debate also generated key moments this campaign, including Tim Walz calling himself a “knucklehead” over false claims he made about his time in China, and JD Vance refusing to answer whether Trump lost the 2020 election.
