Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to debate on ABC, Trump says he wants 2 more
Trump had previously suggested he might back out of the ABC debate, which was scheduled before Harris, the US vice-president, replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate less than three weeks ago, upending the contest.
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 Biden, and Democrats have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from voters and big donors in a matter of weeks.
Asked on Thursday how he has altered his approach to the new challenge from Harris, Trump insisted he has not done so.
In a question-and-answer session with reporters that stretched beyond an hour, Trump moved from topic to topic, claiming Harris and Walz were weak candidates who were already dropping in the polls.
Despite that, he lamented that he is not able to face Biden in the election, suggesting that the president was a victim of an unconstitutional plot to dislodge him from atop the Democratic ticket.
Biden dropped his faltering re-election bid under pressure from fellow Democrats worried about his chances of victory in the November 5 election after a poor debate performance against Trump.
Trump 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 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.”
02:07
US vice-presidential hopeful Tim Walz slammed by Trump supporters for China connection
Echoing a recent criticism 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 programme and took questions from the programme’s hosts.
Harris and Walz were meeting vehicle workers in Detroit on Thursday, following the United Auto Workers union’s endorsement of their candidacy, as part of a push to mobilise blue-collar workers in key battleground states.
The Harris campaign cancelled events on Thursday in North Carolina and on Friday in Georgia, where Tropical Storm Debby is bringing heavy rain and dangerous flooding. The Democrats will head to Arizona and Nevada later this week, visiting two more swing states likely to play a key role in the November 5 election.
Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, also cancelled campaign events in North Carolina on Thursday due to the storm. He has spent the last few days trailing Harris and Walz around the country, an unusual move intended to provide a “contrast”, he told reporters on Wednesday.