PALM BEACH: Donald Trump proposed three September debates against Kamala Harris on Thursday as he sought to wrest some of the attention his rival has received since her successful entry into the US presidential race.
The country’s first female, black and South Asian vice president heads to her party’s national convention in Chicago in mid-August after a series of packed rallies that won praise for a positive message that has re-energized the Democratic base.
Meanwhile, Trump — who addressed reporters at his seaside home in Florida — found himself on unfamiliar ground as something of a bystander, overshadowed by Harris’ rise as he scaled back his own campaign.
“I hope they agree,” Trump told reporters after saying he had scheduled debates with television stations for Sept. 4, 10 and 25.
Trump revived a series of familiar attacks on his opponent – repeatedly questioning the intelligence of the former attorney general and US senator in an event punctuated by falsehoods.
Trump has made false claims about every possible topic surrounding the election and his record in office, from the price of gasoline to the size of his crowd, US military deaths in Afghanistan and the 2021 Capitol uprising by his supporters.
He assured reporters that there would be a peaceful transfer of power after the Nov. 5 vote — but questioned whether the election would be fair, claiming the latest transfer was peaceful, despite deadly riots in the Capitol.
Trump also rejected the suggestion that he would have to recalibrate his campaign to take into account his new opponent after Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the July 21 ticket.
“It’s the same policy, open borders, weak on crime.
The competing campaigns led to Trump backing out of the previously scheduled Sept. 10 ABC presidential debate. The network said Thursday that both candidates have now agreed to a face-off.
Trump-friendly Fox News will host the first of three debates, while NBC will have the final slot. There was no immediate word on that data from the Harris campaign.
The former president’s debate with a sullen Biden in June marked the end of the president’s re-election campaign, but Trump has been reluctant to face Harris on neutral ground.
The 78-year-old struggles to come up with the effective offensive lines that would define Harris while giving his opponent a series of increasingly confusing nicknames.
The news conference was his first public appearance since Harris — a generation younger than Trump at 59 — announced his running mate, Tim Walz, and set off on a tour of the hotly contested battlegrounds.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a leading election prognosticator, shifted three of its ratings in favor of Democrats on Wednesday, moving Minnesota and New Hampshire from “leaning Democratic” to “likely Democratic” and Georgia from “leaning Republican” to “tossed.”
Meanwhile, Marquette University Law School released a statewide poll showing that among likely voters, Harris now leads Trump by six points — 53 percent to 47 percent.
Despite her intense campaign schedule, Harris has taken almost no questions from reporters since entering the race, and Trump sought to turn her lack of media exposure into a campaign issue ahead of Thursday’s news conference.
“She didn’t do an interview — she can’t do an interview, she’s barely competent … But I’m looking forward to the debates because I think we need to set the record straight,” he said in Florida.
