With 90 days until the election, former President Donald Trump’s campaign is showing signs that it knows it’s “in a real fight” for the White House, according to former Obama adviser David Axelrod.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ entry into the 2024 election has completely upended the race. While Trump and Republicans had started to pull away in the days before President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris has either closed or erased the gap on the former president across national polling, and her momentum has sparked renewed excitement among the Democratic voter base.
Axelrod, who served as senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, said Wednesday that it appears Trump’s team is starting to feel the pressure from Harris’ momentum, tell CNN’s Erica Hill, “the fact that Trump is now changing his position on the debate tells me that they understand that they’re in a real fight here.”
The Obama adviser was reacting to Trump’s appearance on Fox News’ Fox and Friends earlier in the day Wednesday, during which the former president said that he thinks it’s “important for the country” that he faces Harris in a debate. The comments came a few days after Trump said he “terminated” plans to attend a previously agreed-upon debate on September 10 hosted by ABC News. Harris’ team has accused Trump of being afraid to face the vice president.
“He needs to debate, which gives you a sense of where the race is,” Axelrod added.
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While he backed out of the ABC News event, Trump has agreed to attending a debate hosted by Fox News on September 4. Harris, however, has said that she still plans to attend the September debate, adding in a post to X, formerly Twitter, last week, “I hope to see him there.”
The former president has given several reasons for backing out of the ABC News debate, while repeatedly calling the outlet “fake news” and has filed a defamation suit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos. He also told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview aired last week that he could “make a case for not” facing Harris in a debate: “Everybody knows who I am, and now people know who she is.”
Trump said on Wednesday that he “wants” to debate Harris and that the two candidates could work out a time and place to hold the event “fairly soon.”
“I want to debate her,” Trump told Fox and Friends. “I think it’s important for the country that we debate.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump and Harris’ campaigns for comment.
