Fox News invites Harris and Trump to debate in September

Fox News has invited Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to debate each other in Pennsylvania on Sept. 17, according to copies of the letters obtained by CNBC.

The invitation comes a day after Trump said he would be willing to debate Harris, the newly minted de facto Democratic nominee, multiple times on a call with reporters.

Fox News proposed that its political anchors, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, serve as moderators for the debate. The company said it is “open to discussion” on the exact terms of the debate, including the date, format, location and whether an in-person audience would be present.

The Harris and Trump campaigns did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on whether they would accept the invite.

The debate would serve as a redemption opportunity for Democrats, following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June.

Another Biden-Trump debate had been scheduled for Sept. 10 and was to be held by ABC News, but the president dropped out of the race on Sunday as concerns across the Democratic Party mounted about his age and fitness.

Though Trump said on the Tuesday press call that he was now willing to debate Harris, he added that he did not “like the idea of ABC.” Meanwhile, the former president regularly praises Fox News.

In the days since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris to replace him, the vice president has gained ground against Trump in initial polling and has hauled in record levels of donations.

So far, the Trump campaign, which has spent the past several months funding a campaign against Biden, has worked to paint Harris as simply a different face of the same opponent.

“I want to debate her and she’ll be no different because they have the same policies,” Trump said Tuesday.