Trump claims he’s ‘likely” is likely to engage in a debate with Harris but he could’make the case that Harris should the opposite.’ The team of Harris says Trump is scared.

Vice-President Kamala Harris’ campaign says former President Donald Trump is scared to engage in a debate with her

NEW YORK — Donald Trump appears to be moving away from his initial pledge to engage with vice president Kamala Harris in a bid to question the worth of a meeting and stating that the president “probably” will participate in a debate, but “can be a strong argument against doing it” which has prompted her campaign to declare that he’s “scared.”

Trump in an interview on Fox News Channel that aired Monday night, was asked repeatedly about his commitment to discussing Harris before delivering a more squisier response than he has in the past.

The Republican ex-president was prepared to engage with the incumbent president Joe Biden when Biden was the Democratic candidate after months of claiming Biden wasn’t mentally prepared to the challenge — or even the presidency. But since Biden was eliminated from running and Harris was poised to become likely to be the Democratic running mate, Trump is now questioning nature of the debate that he negotiated with Biden. Trump has suggested that the September. 10th debate, which airs on ABC News should be moved to a different channel, declaring ABC “fake media.”

Last week, during the course of a telephone conversation with journalists, Trump was asked if the president would agree to debate Harris at least at least once. Trump replied: “Oh, yes, absolutely. I’d like to,” and he said there was a need to talk about.

In the interview on Monday, the host Laura Ingraham repeatedly pressed Trump regarding whether he’d agree to the debate.

“I want to do a debate. However, I can also claim this. Everyone is aware of me. The public now knows who she is.” Trump said.

Trump finally admitted, “The answer is yes I’ll likely be debating it.”

He continued for about one minute, explaining that discussions should be conducted before the early voting begins in the states. Then the senator added “The solution is no, however I can argue for not taking it on.”

Trump has sat out debates prior to the debates, which includes all of the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates. Trump initially refused to participate, saying the timing was a bit early, then doubting the location of a different debate after which he finally made it clear that he was not going to participate in any debate.

Harris spokeswoman for the campaign Ammar Moussa has accused Trump of continuing to avoid the possibility of a confrontation with his opponent.

“It’s evident from the question-dodging tonight: He’s worried that he’ll be forced the burden of defending the running partner’s bizarre comments about females as well as his personal demands to end the election process in America during a debate with Vice President Trump,” Moussa said.

This Republican campaigner also sought the interview on Monday to clarify remarks he made at a conservative gathering during which he assured an audience made up of Christians who gathered at the event that “won’t need to cast a vote” once he’s elected.

He encouraged Christians who, he says, do not vote in large numbers, to cast their ballots “just this time” and added, “You won’t have to take it up again.”

In the span of four years, he declared: “It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fixed. There won’t be a need to vote for a while, beautiful Christians.”

Then he added: “In four years, you won’t need to vote again. We’ll get it fixed and you’re no longer going to have to be voting.”

The comments caused alarm among Democrats and other observers who pointed out Trump’s tendency to use the word “authoritarian” as well as his earlier statements that he’d be a dictator from “day one” and his actions following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election in which Trump refused to accept the outcomes and tried to reverse the outcome.

Trump’s supporters and his campaign have offered a range of explanations for the comments and Ingraham asked him to clarify what he meant by.

“They do not vote and I’m explaining this to them. ‘You never vote.’ This time, go out and vote. I’ll get the country in order. You’ll not have to cast a vote. I’ll not require to count your votes,” Trump said.

Ingraham asked what he meant by that. Christians will not have to vote for him as his term will be limited to four years as president.

Trump began his response by addressing the voting rate of Christians as well as gun owners and Ingraham interrupted him to ask to repeat the question.

“Don’t think regarding the future. Make sure to vote. You need to cast your vote on the 5th of November. Then, you won’t need to think about voting any more. I’m not worried because we’ll fix it the country. It will be fixed, and we’ll not even require your vote because, honestly there will be such affection. If you’re not interested in vote, it’s fine,” Trump said.

Trump made similar remarks in the last month at a separate Christian-oriented gathering, where he complained about the low turnout of Christians and encouraged Christians to vote in the elections.

“In the next four years you won’t need to vote, okay? After four years you don’t have to vote. I don’t care.” the man declared.

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Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon, a reporter from West Palm Beach, Fla. was a contributor to this story.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.