Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) said during an interview on Wednesday evening that he will debate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in the CBS News vice presidential debate this fall as long as the network doesn’t play any games with the parameters that it sets for the debate.

CBS News made its invitation to both vice presidential candidates in a statement released to the public Wednesday afternoon, noting that it gave the candidates four dates as options for the debate in New York City: September 17, September 24, October 1, and October 8.

Walz blasted out on social media that he accepted the October 1 date, which is after early voting begins in a number of states.

When asked during a Fox News interview about whether he would be at the debate, Vance responded: “We want to actually look at the debates, look at the moderators, talk about the rules a little bit. CBS reached out to us about this literally three hours ago, I was landing from a rally and a press conference in Michigan.”

“I strongly suspect we’re going to be there on October 1st, but we’re not going to do one of these fake debates, where they don’t actually have an audience there,” he continued, noting that the parameters of the debate needed to set up in the right way to encourage “a good exchange of ideas.”

“In other words, we’re not going to walk into a fake news media garbage debate,” he added. “We’re going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it.”

NEW: JD Vance suggests he won’t debate Tim Walz on CBS if there’s no audience

“I strongly suspect we’re going to be there on October the 1st, but we’re not going to do one of these fake debates…We’re not gonna walk into a fake news media garbage debate.” pic.twitter.com/9fVeZ9Lm4i

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 15, 2024