On Tuesday (July 23), former President Donald Trump announced his commitment to debating Vice President Kamala Harris.
ABC News will host the upcoming debate on September 10. During a conference call with reporters, Trump, who recently criticized ABC as “a joke,” confirmed he would participate regardless of the network, stating he was “willing to do more than one debate.”
Despite his reservations about ABC, which he accused of favoring Biden and Harris, Trump stressed the importance of debates. “If you’re a Democratic or Republican candidate, you must debate,” he said.
Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Biden and Trump had agreed to two debates: one on June 27, hosted by CNN, and another on September 10. Biden withdrew from the presidential race this week after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Trump suggested that Harris would be easier to defeat than Biden, whom he described as “slightly more mainstream, but not much.” Despite this, the Trump campaign released a memo from pollster Tony Fabrizio on Tuesday, predicting that Harris would experience a polling boost following recent events and her upcoming vice-presidential nomination.
“Harris will get her bump earlier than the Democratic Convention,” Fabrizio wrote. “That bump is likely to start showing over the next few days and will last until the race settles down.”
The Trump campaign’s conference call focused on immigration, a central issue in Trump’s strategy against Harris. The call coincided with Harris’ first campaign rally, held near Milwaukee, the site of the previous week’s Republican National Convention.