Trump announces debate at news conference, as Harris polling stays strong

MAR-A-LAGO, Florida: US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic rival Kamala Harris will debate on Sep10 on ABC, the network confirmed on Thursday (Aug 8), while Trump said he wants to add two more debates that month on Fox and NBC.
In a rambling news conference at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence, Trump said he wanted debates on Sep 4 and Sep 25 as well. He did not detail specific terms, such as whether there would be an audience, and it was not immediately clear whether his campaign had made a proposal to Harris’ camp.
The Harris campaign did not comment. At a campaign event in Detroit, Harris said she was looking forward to the Sept. 10 debate, an NBC reporter said on X.
Her rapid rise has sent Trump’s team scrambling to recalibrate their strategy and messaging. Opinion polls show Harris has erased the lead Trump had built over President Joe Biden, and Democrats have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from voters and big donors in a matter of weeks.
Asked on Thursday how he has altered his approach to the new challenge from Harris, Trump insisted he has not done so.
In a question-and-answer session with reporters that stretched beyond an hour, Trump moved from topic to topic, claiming Harris and Walz were weak candidates who were already dropping in the polls.
Despite that, he lamented that he wouldn’t able to face Biden in the election, suggesting that the president was a victim of an unconstitutional plot to dislodge him from atop the Democratic ticket.