Yahoo News Trump and Harris Agree to Debate as Republican Looks to Shift Race
(Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looked to recapture attention — and momentum — in his race against Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, dangling a series of debates and fielding questions for over an hour from reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
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The effort by Trump to reclaim the spotlight comes after recent weeks dramatically reshaped a presidential race that the former president had previously been leading. Democrats have been invigorated by President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside, and polls show a surge of support for Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her running mate unveiled earlier this week.
While Trump insisted that he preferred to run against Harris and still believed that the fundamentals of the race had not changed, the push — which included not only a public press conference at which the debate challenge was issued, but a separate private briefing for reporters and senior campaign officials — underscored his effort to turn the page from Harris’ honeymoon period.
The Republican candidate repeatedly insulted Harris’ intelligence, said he planned to air commercials attacking her record on inflation and immigration, and criticized the vice president for avoiding media interviews since capturing the Democratic nomination. But he also made clear that he hoped that presidential debates could change the dynamics of a race that had turned against him.
Trump said he had agreed to debates with Fox News, ABC News, and NBC News in September, as well as a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News.
“They may or may not agree, I don’t know if they’re going to agree,” Trump said Thursday at the press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Harris campaign had previously agreed to a debate with ABC News on Sept. 10, and the network said they expected that contest to proceed. Harris told reporters Thursday that she was “looking forward to it.”
Trump’s campaign said his offer also included a Sept. 4 contest with Fox — which the former president had already floated — as well as the NBC forum on Sept. 25.
Harris will not agree to the Fox News debate, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their plans. The vice president’s team had previously discounted the possibility of a Fox debate. The campaign will discuss future debates if Trump shows up to the ABC contest, the official added.
Campaign Strategy
In a briefing for reporters ahead of Trump’s press conference, campaign officials said they believed the surge in support for Harris would dull as voters became more familiar with her.
The officials said they are better prepared to target voters in 2024 than in 2020. One official said undecided swing state voters are particularly persuaded by arguments related to personal finance, inflation, Social Security and abortion, according to the campaign’s internal polling. The campaign says it will specifically target men, moderates and Hispanic and Asian voters.
Trump said he believed that the issue widely seen as his biggest vulnerability — abortion — would not play a major role in the election. He said he believed voters were satisfied that he had expressed support for exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother, and preferred allowing states to decide abortion laws rather than the federal abortion rights provided under Roe v. Wade.
“I don’t think it’s a big factor anymore. Really,” Trump said.
Trump also sought to dismiss concerns about his ties to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, saying that the supporters who entered the building in a bid to disrupt the election certification represented a small portion of his backers and that he expected a peaceful transfer of power next year.
“Of course there’s going to be a peaceful transfer of power,” he said.
Biden, in an interview with CBS News taped Wednesday, said he was “not confident at all” that violence would be avoided if Trump lost.
The press conference came after Trump sought to turn the spotlight on himself in recent days by participating in a series of unconventional events, including a lengthy livestream with controversial video-game celebrity Adin Ross, who has also appeared with self-described misogynist Andrew Tate and an anonymous person who espoused neo-Nazi views. Trump also said he will do an interview with billionaire Elon Musk on Monday.
Read this next: Swing-State Economics Present Challenge for Harris, Opening for Trump
Last week, Trump spoke to the National Association of Black Journalists, in a combative interview where the Republican nominee suggested Harris decided to identify as Black for political gain. Harris, who is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, attended a historically Black school, Howard University, and participated in a Black sorority.
--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.
(Updates with additional details on debates in paragraphs 5-9)
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