Donald Trump, rattled by Kamala Harris’ poll rise, commits to September debate

Palm Beach: Donald Trump gave an hour-long news conference on Wednesday in which he recommitted to debating Vice President Kamala Harris and taunted her while also repeating old lies and lashing out at questions about the enthusiasm her campaign is receiving.

As Trump addressed reporters at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, ABC announced that Trump and Harris, the Democratic nominee, have agreed to a September 10 presidential debate, setting up a widely anticipated face-off in an already unparalleled presidential election.

Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump speaks to reporters.Credit: AP

Trump said he had proposed three presidential debates with three television networks in September.

The former president again insisted there had been a “peaceful transfer of power” in 2021 and renewed attacks on Republican rivals like Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, whom he has harshly criticised since Kemp refused to go along with his false theories of election fraud.

In taking more than a dozen questions from reporters, however, Trump tried to draw a contrast with Harris, who has not held a news conference since she became the Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.

Trump’s decision to appear on ABC, days after posting on his social media account that he would not appear on the network, sets up a highly anticipated moment in an election in which Biden’s catastrophic performance in the last debate set in motion his withdrawal.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.Credit: AP

“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said on Thursday. “I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.”

The Harris campaign had no immediate comment.

Trump’s pledge to debate Harris comes as she rises in a key poll.

Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 42 per cent to 37 per cent in the presidential race, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday (US time).

‘Radical’ Walz

The poll showed Harris’s lead had widened since a July 22-23 Reuters-Ipsos survey found her at 37 per cent to Trump’s 34 per cent.

The nationwide poll of 2045 US adults, conducted from August 2– 7, found that 4 per cent of those surveyed backed independent candidate Robert Kennedy jnr, down from 10 per cent in July.

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 told an audience in Atlanta recently 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.

He has also expressed frustration with the media’s treatment of Harris and, on Thursday, said the media had underestimated the size of his crowds compared to hers.

“If Kamala has 1000 people at a rally, the press goes ‘crazy,’ and talks about how ‘big’ it was – And she pays for her ‘crowd.’ When I have a rally, and 100,000 people show up, the fake news doesn’t talk about it,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump says he has not “recalibrated” his campaign despite facing a new opponent, a dynamic some Republican strategists have quietly complained about.

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.

Trump also suggested abortion will not be a major issue in the campaign and the outcome in November.

He insisted that the matter “has become much less of an issue” since the Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion services and returned control of the matter to state governments. But the issue is widely seen as a general election liability, and Trump named states such as Ohio and Kansas that have since voted to protect abortion rights.

Trump argued that Democrats, Republicans and “everybody” was pleased with the results of the 2022 ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

The court’s decision, issued months ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, is widely cited as a reason that Democrats fared much better than expected in House and Senate contests. And Democrats have hammered Trump in paid advertisements, blaming him and the justices he appointed for ending Roe.

AP, Reuters

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