Former president Donald Trump on Thursday agreed to a September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and challenged her to two others, pointing out that his new rival has avoided unscripted media appearances since replacing President Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
During a Thursday press conference at Mar-a-Lago, he said that he has agreed to appear at three debates, one on September 4 on Fox News, a second on ABC on September 10 (a debate he had previously backed out of after Harris replaced Biden), and a third on NBC on September 25. Harris had previously said that she would attend the ABC debate, but it’s unclear whether she’ll appear for the other two contests.
“We have spoken to the heads of the network and it’s all been confirmed other than some fairly minor details,” Trump said.
“She hasn’t done an interview,” he continued, expressing doubt about whether Harris will agree to debate him. “She can’t do an interview. She’s barely competent.”
The former president said he looks forward to debating Harris to “set the record straight,” particularly on the border crisis.
“It’s going to be very revealing,” he said.
Harris has refused to sit for any interviews or answer substantial questions from reporters since launching her presidential bid. A Trump adviser underscored the “stark contrast” between Harris and Trump on Thursday in comments to Fox News, noting the vice president has gone 18 days since entering the presidential race without taking questions from the media.
Harris has answered off-the-record questions from the press aboad Air Force Two, according to the New York Post. She reportedly spoke with reporters off-the-record for four minutes on Tuesday afternoon and five minutes on Wednesday.
Trump said Harris is “not smart enough to do a news conference.”
The former president’s comments come one day after his running mate, Senator J. D. Vance, took a similar jab at Harris’s lack of interaction with the media. When Vance and Harris’s planes landed on the same tarmac in Wisconsin on Wednesday, Vance approached a group of reporters and said, “I figured you guys might be lonely because Kamala doesn’t take questions.”