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By Aila Slisco
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Bestselling author Stephen King's latest social media post has gone viral while falsely claiming that former President Donald Trump has refused a potential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Following weeks of intense pressure emerging in the wake of a disastrous June 27 debate performance, President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing his candidacy from this year's presidential election and endorsing Harris as his replacement.
While Trump and Biden had been set to take part in a second debate hosted by ABC on September 10, the future of any debates between Trump and Harris, should she become the Democratic nominee, remains in doubt.
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King, an outspoken Democrat who frequently criticizes Trump online, claimed in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that the former president had already announced that he would refuse to debate Harris.
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"Trump has announced he won't debate Kamala Harris," King wrote in the post, which had 5.1 million views on X at the time of publication.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek on Monday night, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said the following: "Stephen King is a dumbass."
Trump has not explicitly announced that he will refuse to take part in a potential debate with Harris. However, the former president did suggest that he would not debate the vice president on the same terms as he would Biden in a post to Truth Social on Sunday.
"My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September," Trump wrote.
"Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC. Thank you! DJT," he added.
The former president previously announced on Truth Social that he was willing to debate Biden "anytime, anywhere, anyplace."
Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller told NBC News shortly after Biden dropped out of the election that "there's definitely going to be" a debate against "whoever the Democrats end up choosing."
King is not the only Trump critic to suggest that the former president will refuse to debate Harris if she becomes his general election opponent.
Trump's estranged niece Mary Trump said on a podcast after Biden dropped out that "there won't be a debate" if Harris is the Democratic nominee, agreeing with political analyst Brian Karem that "nothing scares Donald Trump more than having to debate Kamala Harris."
David Plouffe, manager of former President Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign, expressed similar sentiments in an X post on Sunday night, arguing that "Donald Trump is too cowardly to debate Kamala Harris."
Update 07/22/24, 10:57 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung.
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