Fox News has proposed a new Sept. 17 debate to the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, a sign that TV networks see new opportunity amid a chaotic run for the White House and a desire by both sides to skip around the traditions that have been set in place in the past by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
In letters to the Harris and Trump campaigns, Jay Wallace, the president and executive editor of Fox News Media, proposed a debate moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, two veterans who typically lead the cable-network’s coverage of elections and top political moments. The event would take place in Pennsylvania.
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“We are open to discussion on the exact date, format and location — with or without an audience,” Wallace said. The letters to campaign officials contained statistics on Fox News’ reach among independent voters in swing states.
ABC News had locked down an agreement between the Trump campaign and that built around President Joe Biden to televise a debate slated to take place on September 10. Trump over the past few days has suggested a debate that would take place on Fox News Channel.
Between 1988 and 2020, the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates organized the presidential debate process, lining up moderators on its own. Modern politics have churned so much with outrage, however, that both Republicans and Democrats have been eager to circumvent the organization their own parties set in motion in 1987, after several elections in which the debates were put together by the League of Women Voters.
The events are not to be taken lightly. CNN televised a debate in June that ultimately proved to be Biden’s downfall. The president appeared enervated and tired, even thought the debate took place without a live audience and with microphones that were muted when a candidate’s time to speak or respond had elapsed. CNN’s telecast was picked up by many of its competitors, and was broken up by commercial breaks — once seen as taboo. Approximately 51.27 million viewers watched the 90-minute spectacle, according to Nielsen, which was simulcast across 22 networks.
