Donald Trump on Thursday proposed three debates with Kamala Harris this fall, all of them in September.
The campaign proposed that Fox News host one on September 4; ABC host one on September 10; and NBC on September 25.
“We have those three dates and those chains. They are very anxiously awaiting that date and those dates,” Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.
The ABC debate was already on the schedule: it was originally going to be between Trump and President Joe Biden. Now it will be between Trump and Harris.
The former president held a rambling session with reporters at his Palm Beach home, where he repeatedly criticized Harris, expressed sympathy for Joe Biden and claimed he was leading in the polls.
Donald Trump proposed three debates with Kamala Harris
Trump did not say whether his team had reached out to Harris’s team to propose a debate. The former president admitted that she has yet to accept it.
‘“I don’t know if they will agree,” he said. “She hasn’t given any interviews.”
Trump and his team have criticized Harris for not giving an interview to the media since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and she became the Democratic nominee.
“I look forward to the discussions because I think we need to set the record straight,” he said.
He also said Harris “isn’t smart enough to hold a press conference.”
“And I’m sorry, but we need smart people to run this country.”
Trump had canceled the Sept. 10 debate with ABC News because he was originally scheduled to do so with Biden. Harris had agreed to participate in that debate once she replaced Biden.
Trump is also suing ABC and anchor George Stephanopoulos for defamation, calling the active litigation a “conflict of interest.”
But now the former president is agreeing to meet on the debate stage. This comes at a time when Harris has made up significant ground in the polls. She was leading Trump in a new national poll released Thursday and is tied with him in several battleground states.
ABC News has confirmed that the Sept. 10 debate between Harris and Trump will take place. It is unclear whether the other two debates will take place.
A well-placed source familiar with the negotiations says the ABC debate is expected to take place in Philadelphia.
The negotiations were led by Washington bureau chief Rick Klein and the network’s top producer, John Santucci.
Meanwhile, Trump spent much of his press conference attacking Harris, his Democratic rival.
He dubbed her “the first loser” and repeatedly said she had gotten “no votes.”
She appears to be referencing the 2020 Democratic primary. Harris, who was running for president at the time, dropped out of the race before the first nominating contest, which at the time was the Iowa caucuses. Her campaign had been plagued by infighting and mismanagement.
“She was the first loser,” he said. “She was the first to quit, and she did. She had no votes, no support, and she was a bad debater, a very bad debater, by the way.”
Donald Trump gave Kamala Harris a new nickname: ‘first loser’
Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago
He also called her “the worst vice president in the history of our country, the most unpopular vice president” and indicated that she was chosen as the party’s candidate for “‘be politically correct’
In an interview with black journalists last week, Trump questioned whether Harris, who has a black father and a South Asian mother, was black.
“She always had Indian heritage and she was just promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she became black and now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know if she’s Indian or black,” she said at the event.
Trump had been gaining ground among black voters when Biden was on the ticket. Harris is making up for votes and the former president tried to downplay her.
“I seem to be doing very well with black men. That’s according to the polls, as you know. I may not be doing as well with black women, but I seem to be doing very well with other segments, extremely well with Hispanics,” he said.
He also defended Biden, his former rival, saying he was sure the president was not happy with his decision to drop out of the race.
“I don’t know if he’s happy with that decision,” he said. “The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden. And I’m not a Biden fan. But I’ll tell you what: From a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint, you’re looking at the presidency being taken away from him.”
“He’s a very angry man right now, I can tell you that.”
But he also received some insults.
“I’m not a big fan of her brain,” Trump said of Biden. “But I think she’s actually not as smart as he is.”