(Atlanta) Donald Trump is said to be “afraid” of debating and Kamala Harris is said to be “unable to express herself” in public: the two rivals for the American presidential election engaged in a heated exchange on Saturday over a possible televised duel in September.
At a campaign rally Saturday night in Atlanta, Georgia, with his running mate J.D. Vance, the former Republican president sought for 90 minutes to break the momentum of the vice president and Democratic candidate who aspires to be the first female president of the United States.
On his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he had “agreed with Fox News to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4” – in Pennsylvania, a swing state, and in public – while accusing her of “not having the mental capacity” to face him in a “real debate”.
These televised debates are a tradition in presidential campaigns in the United States and the last one, on June 27 on CNN between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, was deemed disastrous and led to the Democratic president’s withdrawal from the race for the White House on July 21.
SCREENSHOT
So against Kamala Harris, who replaced Joe Biden at the last minute, Donald Trump hammered the point home in front of enthusiastic supporters in Atlanta: “We’re going to do it on Fox. If she comes. I don’t think she’s going to come, she’s not capable of expressing herself.”
Fox News vs. ABC
The Harris campaign had earlier said their opponent should stick to the debate scheduled against Joe Biden on ABC on September 10.
Mme Harris accused the 78-year-old tribune on X of being “afraid” to confront him and of preferring Fox News, the favorite channel of the American right, to “get out of trouble.”
“I will be there on September 10, as he agreed. I hope to see him there,” she said.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung countered that the Democrat would be “too cowardly to agree to an earlier debate,” on September 4 instead of the 10th, and on Fox News rather than ABC.
PHOTO NICOLE CRAINE, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kamala Harris attended a rally in Atlanta on July 30.
While Donald Trump constantly attacked Joe Biden for his age, mocking him as a senile 81-year-old, he had to adjust to Kamala Harris, 59.
He sparked controversy on Wednesday by targeting her over her origins: “She was Indian and all of a sudden she changed and she became a black person.”
The vice president, who defines herself as a “black woman,” was born in 1964 in Oakland, California, to a Jamaican father who came to study in the United States, Donald Harris, and an Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who emigrated for her doctorate.
Even though he brought a black man and woman to the podium on Saturday night, Mr. Trump did not play that racial card again against Ms.me Harris.
“She will destroy our country”
“We’re going to have a hard time defining it […] “It’s a horror movie, she’s going to destroy our country,” he attacked, calling this former magistrate and senator from California a “Marxist prosecutor” and a “far-left nutcase.”
He also spoke of his favorite issues that threaten America — uncontrolled immigration, crime, the risks of a “Third World War” and a “Depression like in 1929” — in an attempt to regain the upper hand over Kamala Harris, who is starting with better poll numbers than Joe Biden, a surge in Democratic mobilization and a booming fundraising campaign.
She is assured of becoming the Democratic nominee after garnering the support of more than half of her party’s delegates in an online vote. She must formally accept the nomination after those delegates close Monday.
Mme Harris is also expected to announce in the coming days her choice of running mate, who would be her vice president if she is elected.
The duo would then begin a tour on Tuesday in no fewer than seven key states in the country, where the presidential election could be decided.
Read “Kamala Harris Running Mate: VP Wanted”