WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Thursday that he has agreed to debate Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, reversing his statement last week that he would not attend the ABC News event.
During a press conference at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the former president said he also agreed to debates on September 4 and 25.
The first debate will be moderated by Fox News, he said.
He had initially backtracked, 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 agreed to with ABC before Biden dropped out of the race, and that NBC would host the final debate.
ABC News confirmed that Trump and the Harris campaign team have agreed to the network’s debate.
“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said.
He then quickly moved on to belittling Harris.
Neither Harris nor Fox News nor NBC responded to States Newsroom’s requests for comment.
The Harris campaign called Trump’s press conference a “public meltdown” in a press release, but did not mention whether Harris would participate in the debate on Fox News or NBC.
Biden was the Democratic nominee, but dropped out of the race after a disastrous performance in the first 2024 general election debate on June 27.
After Biden’s withdrawal, Harris quickly secured the nomination and began a campaign tour with her newly nominated vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Peaceful transfer of power
During Thursday’s press conference, a reporter asked if there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump lost the election.
“Of course there will be a peaceful transition, and there was last time, and there will be a peaceful transition,” Trump said. “I just hope we have an honest election.”
The transition of power from Trump to Biden in 2021 was one of the most tumultuous and violent in the country’s history.
It is Jan. 6. 2021, A group of pro-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Congress has impeached Trump for the 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 this election.
Trump said the hundreds of people the U.S. Justice Department has charged and convicted for their role in the January 6 attacks were not being treated fairly.
“Nobody was killed on January 6th,” Trump said, which is not true. “I think people were treated very unfairly on January 6th.”
Two police officers, Howard Liebengood of the US Capitol Police and Jeffrey Smith of the DC Metropolitan Police Department committed suicide on January 6. decided on a line of duty deathA woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot by a Capitol Police officer as She attempted to enter the Speaker’s Lobby next to the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.
