Slipping in the polls, Donald Trump agreed Thursday to a September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and upped the pressure on his Democratic opponent to answer questions from the media.
“She’s barely competent,” Trump said of the vice president at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., estate. “She’s not smart enough to do a news conference.”
In a rambling 65-minute exchange with reporters, the former president lobbed a string of insults at Harris, repeated wild and misleading claims and portrayed the U.S. in stark, apocalyptic terms: “We could literally be on the throes of the Depression,” he said. “We are in great danger of being in World War III.”
Trump accused Harris of destroying California and San Francisco. “Everything she’s touched,” he said, “has turned to bad things.”
The GOP nominee — who has long engaged in a contentious relationship with mainstream media outlets he dubs “fake news” — challenged reporters to do a more thorough job of interrogating Harris.
“I just hope that the media becomes more diligent, more honest, frankly — because if they’re not going to be honest, it’s going to be much tougher to bring our country back,” Trump said. “We have a very, very sick country right now.”
As Trump answered questions from reporters, ABC confirmed on the social media site X that the two presidential candidates have agreed to a debate next month. Trump told reporters he was also willing to participate in additional September debates with Fox News and NBC.
In response, Harris said on X: “I hear that Donald Trump has finally committed to debating me on September 10. I look forward to it.”
After a campaign rally in Michigan, Harris told the media pool Thursday afternoon that she was ready for a sit-down interview. “I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” she said.
Trump relied on many familiar GOP talking points as he cast Harris as a “radical leftist” and a “loser” who is weak on crime and the border. He questioned the manner in which she had become the Democratic nominee after President Biden ended his reelection campaign, noting that in 2019 she dropped out early in the 2020 presidential primary.
“She was the first loser,” he said of Harris, who bowed out in 2019 after former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. “The fact that you can get no votes, lose in the primary system … and then be picked to run for president seems to be actually unconstitutional.”
In criticizing Harris’ intelligence, Trump made the misleading claim that she “couldn’t pass her bar exam.” Harris failed California’s bar exam on her first attempt in 1989, but passed in 1990, a year after her graduation.
“Nobody was killed on Jan. 6,” he said. In fact, several people died in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including a Trump supporter who was fatally shot by the Capitol Police.
“We’re leading Georgia by a lot,” he said the same day that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its ratings for Georgia, Arizona and Nevada from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up.”
As the race becomes more competitive — Democrats are seeing a swell of grassroots enthusiasm and polls show Harris gaining ground — Trump told reporters his strategy had not changed.
“I haven’t recalibrated strategy at all,” Trump said. “It’s the same policies: open borders, weak on crime.”
Asked about abortion, he said it was “much less of an issue” in the campaign.
Harris, he said, was “worse than Biden.” He compared her unfavorably with his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton: “In terms of intelligence,” Trump said, “Hillary was far superior.”
Former President Trump speaks to reporters during Thursday’s news conference at Mar-a-Lago.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
After the news conference, the Harris campaign delivered a withering review to reporters in an email titled: “Donald Trump’s Very Good, Very Normal Press Conference.”
The subheading: “Split Screen: Joy and Freedom vs. Whatever the Hell That Was.”
“Donald Trump took a break from taking a break to put on some pants and host a p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ public meltdown,” the Harris campaign wrote before running through a long list of his false claims. “He hasn’t campaigned all week. He isn’t going to a single swing state this week. But he sure is mad Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are getting big crowds across the battlegrounds.”
The former president’s campaign momentum has lagged since Biden abruptly ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris. National polling shows Trump’s lead among likely voters falling away in crucial battleground states as Harris has dominated news coverage over the last week, formally securing the Democratic presidential nomination and naming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate.
On Thursday morning, Trump attempted push back, assailing Harris on his Truth Social site for failing to engage with the media and arguing her policies on immigration, the environment, LGBTQ+ issues and the Middle East were “CATASTROPHIC.”
“Kamala refuses to do interviews because her team realizes she is unable to answer questions, much like Biden was not able to answer questions, but for different reasons,” Trump wrote. “He is just plain ‘shot,’ and she is just plain ‘Incompetent.’
“If she is Elected, our County, [sic] and indeed the World, will suffer a 1929 Style Great Depression,” Trump added.
Harris — who secured the Democratic nomination without the scrutiny of a public primary campaign or debate — has not engaged in any substantial on-the-record interviews with reporters in the 18 days since Biden withdrew.
Over the last week, the vice president has crisscrossed the country, delivering slightly different versions of the same stump speech in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Last week, she responded briefly to a question from the media as she and Biden welcomed American prisoners home from Russia.
Trump vowed on social media Thursday to “expose” the vice president “the same way I exposed Crooked Joe, Hillary, and everyone else during Debates – Only I think Kamala will be easier!”
Over the last few days, Trump has posted a flurry of false claims and fanciful speculation on social media. On Tuesday, he claimed that Biden would show up at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and attempt to reclaim the nomination from Harris. “He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!” Trump wrote.
Trump also asserted Thursday without evidence that journalists underreport the size of the crowds at his rallies.
Just weeks ago, Trump was viewed by many political observers as unassailable after he survived a July 13 assassination attempt at a rally, leaping up and hoisting his fist in the air.
But over the last two weeks, he has invited a string of negative publicity. On July 31, he engaged in a hostile back-and-forth with Black journalists in Chicago, drawing outrage for falsely accusing Harris of shifting the way she talked about her racial identity.
On Saturday, Trump drew criticism from fellow Republicans after picking a fight at an Atlanta rally with a popular GOP figure, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, blaming Kemp for his 2020 loss to Biden.
“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said of Kemp, who won reelection against Stacey Abrams in 2022 by 7.5 percentage points.
GOP strategists have characterized the recent uptick in Democratic enthusiasm as a fleeting “Harris honeymoon.” But polls show Harris gaining ground on Trump nationally and in several crucial battleground states.
State polling averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight.com show significant movement toward Harris in the “Blue Wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from July 21, when Trump was leading by 2 to 4 points. Harris now has a slight lead, within the margin of error, in those states of 0.7 to 1.6 points.
“Three weeks ago, Donald Trump was leading President Joe Biden in the Cook Political Report national vote tracker by about 2.5%,” Amy Walter, Cook’s editor in chief, wrote Thursday. “Today, Kamala Harris leads Trump by less than one point, a shift of more than three points in Harris’ direction.”