Donald Trump said he will “probably end up” debating Kamala Harris and criticized Democrats for what he calls a “coup” to replace Joe Biden.
Harris has accused Trump and his campaign of backtracking on the presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC.
While the Trump campaign has previously said they are waiting to be sure Harris is indeed the nominee after how quickly Democrats replaced Biden, he admitted he will likely debate Harris.
“I want to have a debate, but I can also say this: everyone knows who I am and now people know who she is,” he said. “She’s a radical left-wing lunatic, she will destroy our country.”
Pressed to explain why he did not release that information on the debate stage, Trump said “everybody already knows that.”
Donald Trump said he will “probably end up” debating Kamala Harris and criticized Democrats for what he calls a “coup” to replace Joe Biden
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham suggested Democrats might say he’s “afraid” to debate.
He then reiterated his wins in previous debates in 2016 and 2020 before revealing some of his terms.
“The answer is yes, I will probably end up debating. I think debates should take place before the votes start being cast.”
He said his second debate against Biden was great, but that too many early votes had already been cast.
“So the answer is yes, but I can also argue against doing it,” Trump added.
Trump is not necessarily committing to the terms of the debate as originally set out because he doesn’t want ABC News to benefit from it.
“I don’t like to reward fake news. They’re going to make tens of millions of dollars off of this debate. I don’t like that ABC is going to get rich,” before mentioning his usual target, anchor George Stephanopoulos, whom he refers to as “Slopadopoulos.”
Trump praised CNN and Jake Tapper, saying they had been “very fair” to him during the first debate with Biden in June.
Harris has accused Trump and his campaign of backtracking on the presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC.
Trump is not necessarily committing to the terms of the debate as originally set out because he does not want ABC News to profit from it, after saying CNN had been “very fair” to him in the June 27 debate.
He then revealed that “maybe” the CNN debate was a mistake, because he claimed he had beaten Biden so resoundingly that “that was the end of him.”
“It looked like she wasn’t going to make it anymore. Now we have (Harris). I’d rather compete against her.”
In a statement Monday, Harris’ campaign said she would attend a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC that had been previously agreed upon by Trump and Biden.
“The American people deserve to hear from both candidates running for the highest office in the land, and she will do so at the ABC debate in September,” they said.
“If Donald Trump and his team say anything other than ‘see you there’ – and it appears they are – that’s a convenient but expected backtracking by the Trump team. Vice President Harris will be there on September 10th; we’ll see if Trump shows up.”
At one point last week, Trump said He was ready and willing to take on Harris. in a debate after she was anointed as his new opponent.
In a telephone news conference on Tuesday, he dismissed Harris’s abilities as a campaigner and said he was willing to debate her more than once.
“I would like to,” he said. “I think it’s important.”
Trump revealed that “maybe” the CNN debate was a mistake, because he claimed he had beaten Biden so resoundingly that “that was the end of him”
In a statement Monday, Harris’ campaign said she will attend a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC that had been previously agreed to by Trump and Biden.
Trump too repeated his recent statement that Joe Biden and his former boss Barack Obama do not get along and that his predecessor staged a coup against Biden.
“That was a blow against an American president. Obama doesn’t like him and he doesn’t like Obama.”
Trump later said he believed recent reports suggesting Biden had been threatened with the 25th Amendment and removal from office.
That’s what happened, we’ll do it the easy way or the hard way.
Trump also went into detail about how his wife Melania experienced the recent assassination attempt on the former president.
This comes at a time when Harris has experienced a recent boost in the polls in a “honeymoon” phase after replacing Biden on the ticket.
According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, Harris’s popularity rating among Americans reached 43 percent in late July. That’s a sharp increase from the 35 percent she held before Biden dropped out of the race.
Trump also repeated his recent claim that Joe Biden and his former boss Barack Obama do not get along and that his predecessor participated in a coup against Biden.
His unfavorable rating was 42 percent, down from 46 percent before Biden dropped out.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who serves as Harris’ campaign co-chair, shed more light on the timeline in which Harris is expected to choose a running mate.
“Everything is in jeopardy and she’ll probably make that decision in the next six or seven days,” Harris said. “I imagine we’ll know who her running mate is.”
This comes as the Democratic National Convention gets underway later next month, but Democrats face an Aug. 7 deadline to nominate their candidates and ensure they appear on ballots in every state.