US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Thursday he is willing to debate his Democratic rival Kamala Harris three times in September on different television networks, as he tried to win back momentum from the Democratic vice-president’s newly galvanised campaign.
ABC News said on social media platform X that it would host a presidential debate on September 10th and that both Mr Trump and Ms Harris had agreed to participate.
During a news conference at his Palm Beach, Florida residence, Mr Trump said he wanted to hold debates on September 4th, September 10th and September 25th, with Fox, ABC and NBC hosting one each.
“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Mr Trump said. “I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.”
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His campaign later clarified that he had mixed up which network would host which debate.
Mr Trump did not detail specific terms, such as whether there would be an audience, and it was not immediately clear whether his campaign had made a proposal to Ms Harris’s camp about the other two dates. The Harris campaign did not immediately comment on the debates.
Mr Trump is rejoining the ABC debate days after posting on his social media network that he would not appear on the network, citing a lawsuit he has filed.
Mr Trump had hinted at an announcement about the presidential debate earlier this week after pulling out of an ABC News debate scheduled for September 10th after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign.
Mr Trump had said he would prefer that Fox News sponsor the debate, but on Wednesday was showing willingness to reconsider ABC.
The news conference was Mr Trump’s first public appearance since Ms Harris selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.
Ms Harris, the US vice-president, and Mr 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 re-energised Democrats.
Her rapid rise has sent Mr Trump’s team scrambling to recalibrate its strategy and messaging. Opinion polls show Ms Harris has erased the lead Mr Trump had built over Mr Biden, and Democrats have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from voters and big donors in a matter of weeks.
Mr Biden dropped his faltering re-election bid 2½ weeks ago under pressure from fellow Democrats who were worried about his chances of victory in the November 5th election after a poor debate performance against Mr Trump.
Mr Trump on Thursday mocked the size of Ms Harris’s campaign crowds, even though they have matched his of late.
“We have the enthusiasm,” he insisted. “The Republican Party has the enthusiasm.” – Agencies
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