Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held an hour-long news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday, marking a stark contrast to Vice President Kamala Harris who has largely stayed away from the media since becoming the Democratic nominee. He also challenged Harris to agree to more debates.
The press conference comes as both Republicans and Democrats have finally settled on their presidential nominees and their running mates. It was Trump's first public appearance since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee and announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has criticized Harris for not taking public questions from the news media or doing any official interviews since launching her presidential campaign after President Biden suddenly dropped out of the race.
On Thursday, Trump argued that Biden was forced out by his own party. "The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden, and I'm no Biden fan," he said. "Whether he could win or he couldn't win, he had the right to run, and they took it away."
Trump says he's eager to debate Harris, saying he'd prefer that Fox News sponsor a debate. A primetime debate with ABC News has now been confirmed by both camps for next month. "I'm glad that he's finally agreed to a debate on September 10th. I'm looking forward to it. And, I hope he shows up," Harris said.
“I will expose Kamala during the debate the same way I exposed Crooked Joe, Hillary, and everyone else during debates,” he said on Truth Social. “Only I think Kamala will be easier.”
Trump is challenging Harris to accept two other proposed debates and he dismissed her rise in the polls following Biden's exit from the race. "When people find out about her, I think she'll be much less. And I see it right now, I see her going way down in the polls now," Trump said.
The former president said his strategy for winning the election hasn't changed with the new Democratic ticket, calling Harris a failure on illegal immigration as the border czar, and also pointing to the economy and foreign policy as key issues.
"We have a lot of bad things coming up. You could end up in a Depression of the 1929 variety, which would be a devastating thing, took many years, took decades to recover from it, and we're very close to that and were very close to a world war, in my opinion," he warned.
READ: What to Know About VP Pick Tim Walz
Meanwhile, Harris and her new running mate are on the campaign trail, focusing their attention on southwestern swing states, holding a rally in Phoenix on Friday and Las Vegas on Saturday.
"We've got 89 days to get things done. The one thing about all of us is we like hard work. Hard work is good work," Harris said.
Trump is also back on the campaign trail this weekend with an event scheduled in Montana. And in a few weeks, the country will see them together for the first time on a debate stage.
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