After Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Newsmax was quick to promote posturing from the Trump campaign about debates — and, surprisingly, there was an actual attempt at balance. An Aug. 2 article by Sandy Fitzgerald actually featured the Harris campaign calling out Trump’s debate reluctance:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign Friday accused former President Donald Trump of being “too scared” to face her in a debate and said he should “man up.”
“He’s got no problem spreading lies and hateful garbage at his rallies or in interviews with right-wing commentators,” Harris for President co-Chair Cedric Richmond said Friday, reports The Hill. “But he’s apparently too scared to do it standing across the stage from the Vice President of the United States.”
And, Richmond added, “Since he talks the talk, he should walk the walk and — as Vice President Harris said earlier this week — say it to her face on September 10. She’ll be there waiting to see if he’ll show up.”
His comments come in response to Trump insisting in an interview that he wants to debate Harris, but he sees little reason to.
[…]His comments come in response to Trump insisting in an interview that he wants to debate Harris, but he sees little reason to.
A Republican lackey appeared on Newsmax TV, as described in an Aug. 2 article by Solange Reyner:
Former President Donald Trump is not hesitant to debate and wants to have “multiple debates” with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, said Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley.
“I think that any opportunity we have to get him side-by-side with Kamala Harris is going to be a win for President Trump,” Whatley said Friday on Newsmax’s “National Report.”
“The fact that Kamala Harris would actually have to stand there and talk without a teleprompter would be very good news, right? Because she has refused to do that since she became the nominee. Not one single unscripted comment, not a tough question from any reporters whatsoever, she needs to have that scrutiny. I think that that’s an essential part of running for it.
Rreyner surprisingly added the other side of the story:
The Democratic National Committee’s newest advertising campaign, launched Friday, taunts Trump for not committing to a debate with Harris.
The DNC has purchased large ads that dominate the digital homepages of major local newspapers in states where Trump plans to campaign in the coming weeks. The ads say “the convicted felon is afraid to debate” and question if that is due to his stance on abortion.
An Aug. 3 article by Eric Mack spun things for Trump in trying to change the terms of the debate:
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wants to debate Kamala Harris, but this time “with a full arena audience,” and he now suggests he won’t debate the vice president if she doesn’t agree to the Fox debate he has proposed.
“I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th,” Trump posted Friday night on Truth Social.
“The FoxNews Debate will be held in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at a site in an area to be determined. The Moderators of the Debate will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his Party — BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!”
Harris and Democrats attempted to use the delay in agreeing to the debate location and format as suggesting Trump did not want to debate, but Trump campaign officials and Trump both said the debate will happen but on new terms.
Mack made no reference to Trump’s shifting claims about debates.
An Aug. 4 article by Fitzgerald got back to what it does best, uncritically parroting narratives from Trump lackeys:
Vice President Kamala Harris is “gaslighting” the American public by refusing to debate former President Donald Trump in a Fox News venue, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax on Sunday.
“Harris is out there saying, ‘man up, let’s go ahead and debate any time, any place. Let’s get it on. Let’s go and rumble. Let’s get this debate happening,’ but it can only be on one certain day with an outlet that is currently in litigation with President Trump,” Miller told Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda.”
Harris insists that she will only debate Trump in an ABC News-hosted debate on Sept. 10 that he’d already agreed to when President Joe Biden was still in the race.
Trump, however, says he’s agreed to a Fox News-hosted debate on Sept. 4, and will not appear on a debate sponsored by ABC News.
Meanwhile, Miller questioned why Harris has not given any one-on-one interviews or answered press questions, even though she’s the presumptive Democratic Party nominee.
The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy played the right-wing media bias card on ABC in an Aug. 12 article:
The co-chair of ABC News’ parent company is a longtime, personal friend and campaign donor of Vice President Kamala Harris, whose upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump will be hosted by the network.
Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, has known Harris since 1994. Their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s, according to The New York Times.
Trump, on the other hand, recently sued ABC News for defamation.
Still, the network insists Harris, the Democrat [sic] presidential nominee, won’t have any advantage when she debates Republican nominee Trump on Sept. 10.
By refusing to use the correct word “Democratic,” McCarthy showed his own media bias.
An anonymous Aug. 17 article served up more Trump debate posturing:
Former President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at a Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that he looks forward to debating challenger Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I look forward to debating her, by the way: She’ll be easier,” he said, referencing President Joe Biden.
“She’ll be easier than him. Her policies are so bad. Remember, her father was a Marxist economics professor,” he said during the rally, which aired live on Newsmax and simulcast on the Newsmax2 online streaming platform.
Trump said Harris “is not what we want in this country.”
“I believe she will be easier to beat than him because she’s a truly radical-left lunatic,” he said.
And it wouldn’t be a full Republican posturing operation if Dick Morris didn’t weigh in, which he did in an Aug. 17 TV hit:
The polling numbers are close between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for now, but all that will change after their first debate on Sept. 10, which will be a “massacre” in Trump’s favor, political strategist Dick Morris told Newsmax on Saturday.
“I think that’s going to be a massacre, a wipeout, not just a debate,” Morris told Newsmax’s “Saturday Report.”
“I think that’s because it’s not just a question of Harris’ delivery or Harris’ issues or her beliefs. It’s a question of her level of information.”
Writer Fitzgerald failed to tell her readers that Morris is a Trump adviser — something Newsmax frequently fails to disclose.