(Updated with ABC debate confirmation, Harris comments) “We’d like to do three debates,” Donald Trump said today of meeting Kamala Harris face-to-face before the November election.
“I think it’s very important to have debates, and we’ve agreed with Fox on a date of September 4,” the GOP nominee announced today in a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. “We’ve agreed with NBC, fairly full agreement subject to them on September 10, and we’ve agreed with ABC on September 25 so we have those three dates and those networks,” Trump added.
Of course, Trump being Trump, the debates with the now poll leading Vice President are not actually a done deal on all three outlets. “The other side has to agree to the terms,” the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host admitted. “They may or may not agree. I don’t know if they’re going to agree.”
Intentionally or not, looks like Trump got his dates mixed up as ABC is saying that their debate is still on September 10 with the two candidates. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate.
Harris told reporters this afternoon, “Well, I’m glad that he’s finally agreed to a debate on September 10.” As for more debates, she said she was “happy to have that conversation about an additional debate, or after September 10, for sure.” She also said that she wanted to schedule a sit down interview with a media outlet “scheduled before the end of the month.”
Last month, Trump made a big deal of dropping out of the long scheduled September 10 POTUS debate on ABC. Today’s inclusion of the Disney-owned net is also surprising as Trump has roasted ABC over and over as unfair to him. NBC has not confirmed the September 10 date that Trump tossed out today, nor a potential September 25 date, but they and the campaigns are discussing various dates, I hear.
With the VP challenging Trump to “say it to my face” in her rallies the past week, the Harris campaign has yet to respond to the Republican’s announcement of three debates. However, when it came to Trump’s obsession with crowd size, which he returned back to again and again in Thursday’s press conference, Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz were quick to knock down his faulty math.
In an election that has actually seen big big crowds for Harris and tossed the rule book out, especially with Joe Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate performance and dropping out the race last month, Trump went through much of his usual stump speech and grievances today. Amidst that he repeatedly warned that the geopolitical situation was “close to World War III,” offer up legally incorrect interpretations of the Constitution on a number of subjects, and attacked Harris as “not smart enough” to handle the media or be president.
Thursday’s rambling and false claim filled press conference is the first Trump has given since he was convicted on 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. While speaking frequently on and off the record to the media traveling with her, the Vice President has not given a formal press conference since becoming the Democrats leading contender and presumptive nominee.
Harris and Walz are on a tour of battleground states that started yesterday in Wisconsin and Michigan. Today, the VP and the Minnesota governor are in Michigan again, before traveling to Arizona. The duo will be on the road until August 10, ending with events in Las Vegas and Harris’ old stomping ground of San Francisco.
Off the trail for most of the past two weeks, Trump’s only scheduled campaign event is a rally in Montana on Saturday. Sure to attract a big crowd and give some juice to down ballots races, Trump’s visit to Montana is seen as otherwise odd being that he is well ahead in the state.
— Ted Johnson contributed to this story.