Fox News Makes Final Pitch for Presidential Debate

As the clock runs out on the 2024 election cycle, Fox News still hopes to have a chance to host a presidential debate. The network sent letters to both the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns on Wednesday inviting them to participate in a Pennsylvania-held debate on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 27 and moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

“With a month to go until the last votes are cast, Fox News Media would like to make one final pitch for a debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris,” the letter read. It was signed by Fox News Media’s president and executive editor Jay Wallace and vice president of politics Jessica Loker and referenced a New York Times opinion piece penned by David Swerdlick that also argued for a Fox News debate.

The criteria for the proposed debate would similar to the formats employed for CNN’s June 27 debate in Atlanta and ABC News’ Sept. 10 debate in Philadelphia. That means the event would be 90 minutes with no studio audience, no opening statements, two-minute answers to questions and two minutes for rebuttals. Additionally, microphones would be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak.

Fox News notably did not indicate in its letter whether the moderators would fact-check the candidates during the debate—an issue that does not sit well with the Trump campaign.

The Fox News debate offer comes as CNN issued a Thursday deadline to both campaigns to agree to its own presidential debate proposal, set to be held at its Atlanta studios on Oct. 23. So far, the Harris campaign has accepted CNN’s offer, while the Trump campaign has yet to respond.

Speaking with TVNewser in the spin room after the vice presidential debate, Trump transition chair Howard Lutnick seemed to rule out a rematch between the GOP candidate and Harris.

“When there’s a prize fight, the challenger who is behind always walks out of the ring having lost and says, ‘I want another one, I want a rematch,’” Lutnick remarked. “Kamala Harris asked for a rematch within minutes. What does that tell you?”

But Harris campaign surrogate Jared Polis disagreed. “I think Donald Trump is scared of her and is avoiding a second debate,” the Colorado governor said in the spin room. “The more people learn about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the more they support them as the next president and vice president of the United States.”