Trump Proposes 3 Debates Against Harris

Former President Donald Trump has agreed to participate in three presidential debates with Vice President Kamala Harris, setting up a likely confrontation between the new opponents on stage before the November election.

It’s not yet clear whether Harris will agree to all three debates Trump outlined. They have both agreed to a debate on ABC on Sept. 10. Trump also said he had agreed to appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 and NBC on Sept. 25.

“I look forward to the debates, because I think we have to set the record straight,” Trump said at a news conference on Thursday from his Mar-a-Lago home in South Florida. “I think it's very important that we have them. I hope she agrees to them… I think they'll be very revealing.” He called Harris a “bad debater.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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Trump’s remarks come less than a week after he said he was going to pull out of the previously scheduled September debate on ABC. He claimed that his agreement “has been terminated” because he will no longer face President Joe Biden, who ended his re-election campaign last month in the wake of a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Trump also claimed the ABC debate could be a conflict of interest because he is in litigation against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos. The Harris campaign pounced on Trump’s cancellation, framing the former President as “afraid to debate” in a series of attack ads.

"We were given Joe Biden and now we're given somebody else,” Trump said Thursday. “And I think, frankly, I'd rather be running against the somebody else.”

Trump also said Thursday that his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, would participate in a vice presidential debate on CBS. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was named Harris’ running mate, has previously said that he would be willing to debate Vance: "And I gotta tell ya: I can't wait to debate this guy," Walz said on Aug. 6.