CNN is offering to host live town halls with Trump and Harris

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CNN
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With former President Donald Trump ruling out further presidential debates until Election Day, CNN changed course on Thursday and invited both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris to attend town hall events with voters.

Harris immediately accepted the network's invitation.

“Trump may want to hide from voters, but Vice President Harris welcomes the opportunity to share her vision for a new path forward for the country. “She happily accepts CNN’s invitation to a live televised town hall on October 23 in Pennsylvania,” Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

The network said the town hall meetings would be held in front of a live audience of persuaded and undecided Pennsylvania voters.

“We continue to believe that the American people would benefit from hearing more from the two main candidates for President of the United States, which is why CNN has invited the campaigns of Vice President Harris and President Trump to speak at separate events on October 23rd Participate in CNN town halls. ” CNN said in a statement on Thursday.

The network had previously suggested a debate between Harris and Trump on October 23 in Atlanta. Harris quickly accepted the invitation, but Trump repeatedly declined it, despite the Harris campaign's attempts to persuade him to attend.

With the CNN offer on the table and a Thursday deadline for a response looming, Fox News wrote to both campaigns on Wednesday offering to hold its own debate in Pennsylvania on Oct. 24 or 27. The Harris campaign likely would have said yes to that even if the CNN deadline passed without an agreement, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But on Wednesday night, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said bluntly: “THERE WILL BE NO BACKFIGHT.”

The Republican candidate again claimed that he had “won the last two debates” and said he had accepted Fox's earlier invitation to a debate on September 4th, which Harris had not accepted, preferring instead to attend the ABC-sponsored debate on September 10th took part.

Trump has also claimed that it is “too late” for a rematch with Harris. In fact, CNN's suggested scheduling was consistent with closing debates in other recent election cycles.

On Thursday afternoon, after CNN's deadline, the network said it would go ahead and try to hold town halls with both candidates.

The country's leading Spanish-language network, Univision, will broadcast its own town hall with Harris on Thursday night and with Trump on October 16.

CNN's Kate Sullivan and Samantha Waldenberg contributed reporting.