In a bid to get Donald Trump back on the debate stage with Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats plan to launch a new campaign calling the former president a “coward” for saying he doesn’t want to debate anymore.
The Democratic National Committee will deploy static and mobile billboards and will even hire a staffer dressed as a chicken to attend Trump’s upcoming campaign rallies.
The chicken billboards, which will debut at Trump’s rally on Monday in Indiana, Pennsylvania, feature a digitally enhanced image of Trump in a chicken suit with the text: “There’s no debate: Donald Trump is a chicken.”
Harris and Trump met this month in Philadelphia for their first debate, hosted by ABC News.
The two clashed over immigration, inflation and abortion, but just two days later, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “There will be no third debate!”
While Harris and Trump have met on the debate stage only once this cycle, Trump also debated President Joe Biden in June, when he was still in the race.
On Saturday, Harris’ campaign announced that she had accepted CNN’s invitation to participate in an Oct. 23 debate.
“Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate. It is the same format and format as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN’s moderators, rules and ratings,” Harris campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement Saturday.
CNN moderated the Biden debate earlier this year, and Trump has indicated he would like other media outlets to host the debate. Last month, he said he had agreed to a proposed debate with Fox News.
But Trump reiterated his decision Saturday not to debate again, telling the crowd at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, that “the problem with another debate is it’s just too late. The voting has already started.”
Early voting started last week in Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota.
In a press release about the upcoming chicken billboards, the Democratic National Committee pointed out that Biden and Trump debated each other during the 2020 presidential election campaign on Oct. 22, even after voting had begun.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
