US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic opponent Kamala Harris will debate on September 10, setting up the first face-to-face match-up between the rivals in what polls show is an extremely close race.
In a rambling news conference at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence on Thursday, Trump said he wanted additional debates on September 4 and September 25 that would air on Fox and NBC.
Harris said on X that she was looking forward to the September 10 debate on ABC after Trump “finally committed”. She told reporters after a campaign stop in Detroit that she was open to discussing more debates.
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Trump had previously suggested he might back out of the ABC debate, which was scheduled before Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate less than three weeks ago, upending the contest.
An Ipsos poll published on Thursday found Harris had widened her lead over Trump since late July. She leads Trump 42 per cent to 37, compared to a July 22-23 Reuters/Ipsos survey, which showed her up 37 per cent to 34 over Trump.
The news conference was Trump’s first public appearance since Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.
Harris and Walz have headlined rallies in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin this week, drawing tens of thousands of attendees in a fresh sign of how her late entry into the race has galvanised Democrats.
Her rapid rise has sent Trump’s team scrambling to recalibrate their strategy and messaging. Opinion polls show Harris has erased the lead Trump had built over President Joe Biden, and Democrats have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from voters and big donors in a matter of weeks.
Trump insisted on Thursday he has not altered his approach to the race, arguing that Harris shares responsibility for Biden’s record.
In a question-and-answer session with reporters that stretched beyond an hour, Trump hopped from topic to topic, claiming Harris and Walz were weak candidates who were already dropping in the polls.
Asked about his controversial comments last week that Harris, who is of Black and Indian descent, recently “happened to turn Black”, Trump said: “You’ll have to ask her that question, because she’s the one that said it, I didn’t say it …. To me it doesn’t matter. But to her, from her standpoint, I think it’s very disrespectful to both, really, whether it’s Indian or Black, I think it’s very disrespectful to both.”
Trump on Thursday also mocked the size of Harris’ campaign crowds, even though they have matched his of late.
He falsely claimed the size of the crowd he addressed on January 6, 2021 — the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol — was as large as those who packed the National Mall in Washington for Dr Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech in 1963.
“We actually had more people,” Trump said.
“But I’m OK with it, because I liked Dr Martin Luther King.”
Echoing a recent attack line from his campaign, Trump criticised Harris for not doing a press interview since launching her campaign.
“She can’t do an interview. She’s barely competent,” Trump said, later again calling her “nasty,” a go-to line that he often uses to disparage female critics.
Trump has conducted a steady stream of media interviews, though they are usually with friendly, right-leaning outlets and reporters. On Wednesday, he called into the Fox & Friends morning program and took questions from the program’s hosts.
