WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday he has agreed to a debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, reversing his position from last week that he would not participate in the ABC News event.
During a news conference at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the former president said he had also agreed to debates on September 4 and September 25.
He added that the first debate will be hosted by Fox News.
He initially misspoke, saying the Sept. 10 debate would be on NBC and ABC would host the Sept. 25 debate. His campaign later clarified that the ABC News debate would be on Sept. 10, the date Trump and President Joe Biden had agreed to with ABC before Biden dropped out of the race, and NBC would host the final debate.
ABC News has confirmed that Trump and the Harris campaign have agreed to a debate on the network.
“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said.
He then quickly moved on to criticism of Harris.
The Harris campaign, Fox News and NBC did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.
In a press release, Harris’ campaign called Trump’s news conference a “public meltdown” but did not mention whether Harris would participate in the debate on Fox News or NBC.
Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee but dropped out of the race after a disastrous performance in the first debate of the 2024 general election on June 27.
After Biden withdrew, Harris quickly secured the nomination and began campaigning with her newly chosen vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Peaceful transfer of power
During a news conference Thursday, a reporter asked whether the transfer of power would be peaceful if Trump lost the election.
“Of course there will be a peaceful transition, that was the case last time, and there will be a peaceful transition,” Trump said. “I just hope we have a fair election.”
The transition from Trump to Biden in 2021 was one of the most tumultuous and brutal in the country’s history.
It’s January. 6, 2021, a group of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Congress impeaches Trump for a second time because of his role in inciting the uprising.
In September 2020, Trump did not commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.
Trump said the hundreds of people the U.S. Justice Department has charged and convicted for their role in the January 6 attack were not treated fairly.
“Nobody died on January 6th,” Trump said, which is not true. “I think people were treated very unfairly on January 6th.”
Two U.S. Capitol Police OfficersJeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood committed suicide after January 6, when ruled that the line of duty means death. A woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer, tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the U.S. House of Representatives chamber.
