Trump pledges to debate on September 10 | News, Sports, Employment

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump pledged again to debate Vice President Kamala Harris after recently backing out, holding a lengthy news conference Thursday in which he mocked his new rival, boasted about his Jan. 6, 2021, crowd and batted away questions about the enthusiasm his campaign has generated.

As the Republican presidential candidate addressed reporters at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, ABC reported that Trump and Harris, the Democratic nominee, had agreed to hold a debate on Sept. 10, setting the stage for a highly anticipated showdown in an already unprecedented election. Trump said he had proposed three debates with three television networks in September.

Trump again wrongly insisted that there had been a “peaceful transfer” from power in 2021 and renewed attacks on Republican rivals like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, whom Trump has harshly criticized since Kemp refused to accept his false theories of election fraud.

Answering questions from reporters for more than an hour, Trump sought to draw a contrast with Harris, who has not held a news conference since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Another key moment is set in the elections

Trump’s decision to appear on ABC marks a momentous moment in an election in which Biden’s disastrous performance in the final debate set in motion his withdrawal.

Just five days earlier, he had declared that he would not debate on ABC and said that his agreement with the network had been “finalized.” He wrote on his social media site that if Harris did not appear on Fox News on September 4, “I won’t see her at all.”

On Thursday, he announced a change of heart and sought to pressure Harris into agreeing to two more debates in September on Fox and NBC.

Asked what he would do if Harris only agrees to the ABC debate, he said: “I don’t know how that’s going to work out. We’d like to have three debates. We think we should have three debates.”

A few hours after the press conference, Harris told reporters that she was “I’m glad he finally made a commitment” to debate her on ABC on Sept. 10, the date originally set for the Biden-Trump showdown and one her campaign has long held.

“I’m looking forward to it and I hope it shows up.” She said.

Thursday’s event was Trump’s first public appearance since Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Trump called Walz a “a man of the radical left.”

“There has never been anything like this between her and him” Trump said. “There has certainly never been anyone as liberal as these two.”

He repeatedly suggested that Harris was not smart enough to debate him. Harris, for her part, has tried to goad Trump into debate and recently told an audience in Atlanta that if he had anything to say about her, he should “Tell me to my face.”

Trump was visibly perturbed when asked about Harris’s crowds and newfound Democratic enthusiasm, dismissing a question about his lighter campaign schedule as “idiot.”

Trump says he hasn’t done it “recalibrated” his campaign despite facing a new opponent, a dynamic that some Republican strategists have quietly complained about.

Asked what assets Harris owned, Trump said: “She is a woman. She represents certain groups of people.”

Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — accused Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, of downplaying her blackness in the past.

Trump admits weakness towards black women

Trump acknowledged that his new opponent is changing his ways and acknowledged that he may not be as popular among black women, one of the Democrats’ key voting blocs. He expressed great confidence in the support he will receive from black men.

“It may affect me a little bit with black women, but we are doing very well.” said. “And I think ultimately they will like me more because I will give them security, safety and jobs. I will give them a good economy.”

Trump campaign officials told reporters ahead of the news conference that they believe Harris is currently enjoying a honeymoon period.

They argued that the fundamentals of the race have not changed and that the mood of the country remains bitter, with Americans frustrated by the state of the economy, the administration and the direction the country is taking. They say that while Harris has reinvigorated the Democratic base, she will not be able to win over Republicans or convert independents or the persuadable voters they are targeting.

The Trump campaign plans to spend the next three months criticizing Harris as… “failed, weak and dangerously liberal”, blaming her for every unpopular policy of the Biden administration and mocking her mannerisms and speaking style.

Trump answers questions about abortion

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

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

Trump also said he hoped Florida would “It will be a little more liberal than people thought” when he votes to repeal the abortion ban later this year, but did not respond to questions about how he would vote.

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

Trump’s actions within the Republican Party, however, suggest he knows Democrats have already capitalized on Republican opposition to abortion rights and could do so again this fall. Trump single-handedly ensured that the GOP platform adopted at the 2024 convention in Milwaukee did not call for a national abortion ban, and he has repeatedly said that hard-liners in the party could cost the GOP dearly in November.

The court’s decision, issued months before the 2022 midterm elections, is widely cited as a reason Democrats fared much better than expected in House and Senate races. And Democrats have lashed out at Trump in paid ads blaming him and the justices he appointed for upending Roe.

Trump makes false claims again on January 6

Trump falsely claimed during the press conference that “Nobody died on January 6th” the date in 2021 when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol amid Congress’s effort to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory after Trump refused to concede.

Ashli ​​Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, was shot and killed by a police officer as she climbed over a broken section of a Capitol door during the violent riot that engulfed the building.

Trump has, to be sure, often cited Babbitt’s death when lamenting the treatment of those who first attended a rally outside the White House that day and then marched to the Capitol, many of whom fought with police and entered the building.

“I think that these people were treated very badly. If we compare it with other things that happened in this country, where many people were killed,” Trump said it on Thursday.

He also falsely claimed that more people attended his speech at a “Stop the theft” demonstration before the riots that the famous March on Washington in 1963, the iconic event in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech.

Trump was asked about Biden’s comments in a CBS interview that he was “I’m not sure” There would be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump lost.

“He should have raised it in the debate if he had any problems. Of course there will be a peaceful transfer, and there was one last time.”

While Biden was inaugurated as scheduled, Washington was on lockdown that day, with the streets patrolled by military personnel and national police two weeks after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol. ___

Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Darlene Superville in Romulus, Michigan, contributed to this report.