“I think its important to have debates,” former President Donald Trump said at a Thursday afternoon press event at his Mar-a-Lago estate that lasted for more than an hour after he gave remarks before taking questions. “I think they’ll be very revealing,” he said. Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 8 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday held a self-announced press conference in which he said he is looking forward to upcoming debates with Vice President Kamala Harris, now the official Democratic nominee in the race for the White House.
“I think it’s important to have debates,” the Republican nominee said during his wide-ranging afternoon appearance at his Mar-a-Lago estate that lasted for more than an hour after he gave remarks before taking questions.
The former president cited three separate debates with Harris by three different television networks, which prompted the Harris campaign to quickly send an email correcting Trump on the dates.
“I think they’ll be very revealing,” he said.
A September 4 debate will be hosted by Fox, followed by an NBC debate on September 25 and then a September 10 debate hosted by ABC.
The hosting networks, Trump says, are “very anxious awaiting those dates.” He said he spoke with network heads, adding that “fairly minor details” await — such as city of location and audience rules and requests, which Trump said “will be settled very easily.”
He also used the event to turn his invective on Harris.
The vice president, Trump said, is “a bad debater” who is “worse than Biden” and “not as smart” as him. He said that, since Biden dropped his campaign for another four years in the Oval Office, “I haven’t recalibrated policy at all” to better take on Harris.
He went on to call Harris the “worst admired, least respected, most unpopular vice president” in American history.
“I’m very happy to run against her,” he added, taking aim at Harris’ newly announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, calling him part of the “radical left.”
“He doesn’t want to have borders, he doesn’t want to have walls,” Trump claimed as he also briefly mentioned his own running mate.
“JD Vance has really stepped up,” he says. “He’s doing a fantastic job.”
The ex-president also spoke at length about campaign crowd sizes in response to questions about a perceived lack of enthusiasm for the Republican ticket, which some say is evidenced by sparsely attended crowds at some Trump rally events.
“We have the enthusiasm; the Republican Party and me as a candidate, we have the enthusiasm,” he responded.
Trump also faced questions about his thin campaign event schedule.
He is not making many campaign swings, Trump said, because he is “winning by a lot” despite recent contradictory polling that would suggest otherwise. He said he will step up his campaigning after the Democratic National Convention later this month.
Tramp also said he is “doing commercials to a level never done before” at Mar-a-Lago and creating “a lot of recording.”
The former president also said that abortion, which will be a top ballot concern this fall, is “much less of an issue” now, despite the overturning of abortion access protections formerly offered by Roe vs. Wade, something of which Trump takes credit.
“Democrats, Republicans, everybody,” he said, wanted the federal issue to revert to the purview of state courts and state laws.
“I did that. Now states are voting” on their own abortion polices, he said.
Later on Thursday, former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham suggested in a social media post that the former president is “panicking” with his “self-announced” press conference, which prompted the Trump team to issue a response personally criticizing her.