Former US president Donald Trump on Thursday recommitted to debating US Vice President Kamala Harris after recently backing out, holding a lengthy news conference in which he taunted his new rival, boasted of his crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and lashed out at questions about the enthusiasm her campaign has been generating.
As the Republican presidential nominee addressed reporters at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, ABC announced that Trump and Harris, the Democratic presumptive nominee, have agreed to a Sept. 10 debate, setting up a widely anticipated face-off in an already unparalleled election.
Trump said he had proposed three debates with three television networks next month.
Photo: AP
Trump again wrongly insisted there had been a “peaceful transfer” of power in 2021 and renewed attacks on Republicans like Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, whom Trump has harshly criticized since Kemp refused to go along with his false theories of election fraud.
In taking questions from reporters for more than an hour, Trump tried to draw a contrast with Harris, who has not held a news conference since US President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
Trump’s decision to go on ABC sets up a high-stakes moment in an election where Biden’s catastrophic performance in the last debate set in motion his withdrawal.
Just five days earlier, he had said he would not debate on ABC and said his agreement with the network had been “terminated.” He wrote on his social media site that if Harris would not appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 instead, “I won’t see her at all.”
On Thursday, he announced a change of heart — and tried to pressure Harris to agree to two more debates next month on Fox and on NBC.
Asked what he would do if a Harris only agrees to the ABC debate, he said: “I don’t know how that’s gonna work out. We’d like to do three debates. We think we should do three debates.”
A few hours after the news conference, Harris told reporters she was “glad he has finally committed” to debate her on ABC on Sept. 10, the date that had originally been set for a Biden face-off against Trump and which her campaign has long stuck to.
“I’m looking forward to it and hope he shows up,” she said.
Thursday’s event was Trump’s first public appearance since Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Trump called Walz a “radical left man.”
“Between her and him, there’s never been anything like this,” Trump said. “There’s certainly never been anybody so liberal like these two.”
He repeatedly suggested Harris was not intelligent enough to debate him. Harris, for her part, has tried to goad Trump into debating and recently told an audience in Atlanta, Georgia, that if he had anything to say about her, he should “ say it to my face.”
Trump grew visibly perturbed when pressed on Harris’ crowds and newfound Democratic enthusiasm, dismissing a question about his lighter campaign schedule as “stupid.”
When asked what assets Harris possessed, Trump said: “She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.”
Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — accused Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, of previously downplaying that she is black.
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