Democrats are trying to get Donald Trump back on the debate stage with Vice President Kamala Harris by launching a new messaging campaign calling the former president a “coward” for saying he won’t debate again.
The Democratic National Committee plans to launch static and mobile billboards.
The chicken sign, which will make its first appearance at a Trump rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania on Monday, features a digitally altered image of Trump in a chicken costume with the words, “No debate. Donald Trump is a chicken.”
Allied Democratic groups also plan to display a balloon chicken resembling Trump outside one of Trump’s rallies.
Harris and Trump appeared in their first debate, hosted by ABC News, in Philadelphia this month.
The two debated over immigration, inflation and abortion, but just two days later, Trump posted to Truth Social: “There will be no 3rd debate!”
Provided by Democratic National Committee
Harris and Trump have met only once during this election campaign, at a debate, but Trump also debated President Joe Biden in June during the election campaign.
Harris’ campaign announced Saturday that she has accepted CNN’s invitation to participate in the Oct. 23 debate.
“Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate, which has the same format and structure as the CNN debate that Trump participated in and claimed victory in June, when he praised CNN’s moderators, rules and ratings,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, co-chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement Saturday.
CNN has previously moderated debates with Biden, and Trump has suggested he would prefer other media outlets host them, saying last month that he agreed to a proposed debate on Fox News.
But Trump reiterated his decision not to hold another debate, telling a crowd at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, “The problem with another debate is that it’s too late. The voting has already started.”
Early voting began last week in Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota.
In a news release about the upcoming chicken billboards, the Democratic National Committee noted that Biden and Trump debated in the 2020 presidential election on Oct. 22, but that debate was also after voting had opened.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
