Trump had previously dropped out of the ABC News debate after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection…reports Asian Lite News
Republican nominee Donald Trump is set to debate US Vice President Kamala Harris on American television network, ABC News on September 10, the former US President said.
Speaking with reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, Trump said his campaign has agreed to three debates, to be hosted by Fox News, ABC News and NBC News. The September 10 debate to be hosted by ABC News is the only one in which the Harris campaign has also agreed to participate.
Harris confirmed in a post on X she’d see him in September at the ABC debate.
“ABC News will host qualifying presidential candidates to debate on September 10 on ABC. Vice President Harris and former President Trump have both confirmed they will attend the ABC debate,” the network said in a statement.
Trump had previously dropped out of the ABC News debate after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection.
“I think it’s very important to have debates, and we’ve agreed with Fox on a date of September 4. We’ve agreed with NBC. Fairly full agreement subject to them on September 10. And we’ve agreed with ABC on September 25,” the former president said.
Further Trump said, “The other side has to agree to the terms. They may or may not agree. I don’t know if they’re going to agree. (Harris) hasn’t done an interview. She can’t do an interview. She’s barely competent, and she can’t do an interview, I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.”
Trump calls Harris ‘disrespectful’ of her ethnicity
During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, Trump sidestepped a question about his claim that Harris had “turned Black.” He said that her behaviour was “disrespectful” to both Black and Indian communities.
A reporter asked Trump why Harris, who attended Howard University and has Jamaican American heritage, would only recently identify as Black. “Kamala Harris’s father is Jamaican American, and she went to a historically Black college, how is she only recently deciding to be Black?” the reporter asked.
Trump responded that the reporter should direct the question to Harris, not him. “Well, you’ll have to ask her that question because she’s the one that said it. I didn’t say it. And I very much appreciate that question, but you’ll have to ask her,” Trump said.
Trump added that he found Harris’s behaviour very “disrespectful” to both Black and Indian communities. “But to me, it doesn’t matter. But to her, from her standpoint, I think it’s very disrespectful to both, whether it’s Indian or Black. I think it’s very disrespectful to both,” he said.
Trump also mentioned his past support for Harris, noting, “I’ve known her for a long time. I contributed to her campaign a long time ago because I was a developer. I contributed to lots of campaigns of Democrats, and Republicans, some were liberal and some were conservative.”
‘American public can sniff inauthenticity’
Meanwhile, criticising JD Vance for his campaign trail, Former White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki said that the voters can “sniff inauthenticity” in him, The Hill reported.
“I think, in politics — as we all know, we’ve all been around it a long time — voters … the American public can sniff inauthenticity,” Psaki said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and added that “This guy is… not authentic.”
Vance’s actions during the campaign trail have drawn criticism.
He once encountered backlash for making a joke about Diet Mountain Dew and Democrats arguing that “it’s racist to do anything.” In addition, he has come under fire for his recent shift in opinion toward former President Trump, whom he had previously opposed before endorsing, and later on becoming his running mate in US Presidential elections 2024.
“He’s not presenting himself as who he was for many decades before he had this kind of about-face … in order to try to connect with the MAGA world,” Psaki said, according to The Hill.
“People sniff that, they recognize it. Voters are not dumb, they’re smart,” she added.
JD Vance, prior to accepting Trump’s nomination of him as the US Vice Presidential nominee was very critical of the former US President.
“And that’s, you know, a root problem for JD Vance, is that he is just not authentically who he presents himself to be, at all,” Psaki further said.
Donald Trump made his pick for Vice President, selecting JD Vance as his running mate on July 15. Trump had confirmed Vance’s candidature through a post on Truth Social. It was after years of criticising Trump, Vance embraced the populist ideology of the former president; this choice further elevates him.
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