Photo: Alex Brandon Associated Press Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump during a rare press conference from his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Thursday
Chandan Khanna – Agence France-Presse and Lucie Aubourg – Agence France-Presse Palm Beach and Washington, D.C., respectively
Published and updated on August 8
- United States
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris confirmed Thursday that they will debate on television on September 10, with the former president offering his rival two more meetings in an attempt to regain control of an election campaign marked in recent weeks by a wave of Democratic enthusiasm.
Seeking to reposition himself at the center of the American presidential campaign in the face of Kamala Harris' momentum, the former president held a rare press conference Thursday from Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious residence in Florida.
He offered his rival three televised debates in September on Fox News, ABC and NBC.
Kamala Harris' campaign team had already said it wanted to maintain the debate on ABC initially planned between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. But after the latter withdrew from the race for the White House, the Republican had hinted for a time that he might not go.
“I learned that Donald Trump has finally committed to debating with me on September 10,” Kamala Harris reacted Thursday. “I'm looking forward to it,” she added, without commenting on the two other dates proposed by the former president, September 4 and 25.
The 78-year-old businessman spent much of his press conference scathingly denigrating the “enthusiasm” sparked by Harris’s entry into the race, as she has held several rallies since Tuesday with her brand-new running mate, Tim Walz.
“I had 107,000 people in New Jersey […] How many did she have yesterday? ? 2,000 people,” Mr. Trump said, stung by press reports of crowds gathered by his opponents.
Democrats “talk about enthusiasm. I tell you that the enthusiasm is in the Republican Party and with me as the candidate,” he assured.
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The tempestuous tribune struggles to respond to the dynamics of the Democratic ticket formed by Mrs. Harris, 59, and Mr. Walz, the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota, who were Tuesday and Wednesday in pivotal states that could decide the fate of the presidential election: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan.
In the latter two states, they gathered 12,000 and 15,000 people, according to their campaigns.
Donald Trump has not yet held a rally this week. This press conference was his first public appearance since Ms. Harris chose Mr. Walz.
He accused his Democratic rival of not being able to do the same exercise. “She's not capable of doing an interview, she's barely competent,” he said.
He also promised a “peaceful transfer” of power, while adding that he hoped that the November 5 election would be “honest.”
He was responding to an excerpt from an interview broadcast the day before, in which President Joe Biden, who on July 21 gave up running for a second term, expressed concern that the man he beat in 2020 would contest the November 5 result if he lost.
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Good polls for Harris
Mr. Trump is due to return to the podium and his supporters on Friday in Montana.
The Democratic duo remained in Michigan on Thursday and participated in a rally alongside the president of the American Auto Workers union (UAW).
“We believe in the collective,” Kamala Harris told a crowd of about a hundred people. “We will not fall into the trap of those who seek to divide us.”
The duo will travel to Arizona and Nevada, two other key states, on Friday and Saturday.
For Kamala Harris, the challenge now is to hold the distance for three months.
In the polls, she has managed to close the gap that Donald Trump had over Joe Biden. A Marquette Law School opinion poll even puts the vice president in the lead, garnering 52% of voting intentions against 48% for her opponent.
Donald Trump's campaign, on the contrary, seems to be getting bogged down, despite a major show of force in mid-July at the Republican convention. He left as the absolute master of his party, just days after having narrowly escaped death in an assassination attempt.
But his task has become more complicated since Joe Biden, 81, was replaced by the more dynamic Kamala Harris, even though he said on Thursday that he “had not reviewed [his] strategy.”