Get ready to debate
Trump/Harris face-off set for September 10.
Donald Trump held an hour-long press conference on Thursday at Mar-a-Lago. Let’s cover the headline news first: Trump agreed to face Kamala Harris in a debate hosted by ABC News on September 10.
That’s the same debate that Trump’s campaign originally negotiated with Joe Biden, back when he was the presumptive Democratic nominee. When Harris took Biden’s place on the ticket, she said she would participate in the debate — but Trump backed out, saying he would only debate Harris on Fox News.
Now Trump is back in, which means — unless either of the candidates change their mind — our first time seeing Trump and Harris side by side will come next month.
During the press conference, Trump also challenged Harris to two more debates: a Fox News debate September 4 and an NBC News debate on September 25. “I am happy to have that conversation about an additional debate for after September 10,” Harris told reporters in Michigan on Thursday, declining to commit to any of the other face-offs.
What else did Trump say at his press conference? Well, a lot.
He claimed that the crowd at his speech on January 6, 2021, was larger than the audience for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. (It wasn’t.) He said that “nobody was killed on January 6.” (Four of his supporters died at the Capitol that day.) He claimed to have been in a near-helicopter crash with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and Harris’ ex-boyfriend. (He appears to have been thinking of former California Gov. Jerry Brown, and there was no emergency landing, as Trump claimed.)
Trump also continued to seed doubt in the 2020 election results, although he pledged that “there will be a peaceful transfer” of power this cycle. He predicted that abortion would be “a very small issue” in the election, declining to say how he plans to vote on a Florida abortion referendum in November and signaling openness to banning the abortion pill mifepristone. As he has before, he suggested that Jewish people “should have their head examined” if they vote against him.
Above all, Trump did not seem to have settled on a coherent campaign message against Harris. Throughout the press conference, he repeatedly seemed to mourn the end of Biden’s candidacy (which he suggested was unconstitutional, although the Constitution outlines nothing about presidential nominations).
He insisted that hadn’t “recalibrated strategy at all” to adapt to a new opponent, explaining: “It’s the same policies: open borders, weak on crime.”
But he rarely mounted a substantive case against Harris, claiming at one point, “It’s about policy, it’s not about her” — before going on a largely policy-free rant about how Harris is “incompetent.”
When asked, he doubled down on questioning Harris’ race, calling it “disrespectful”for her to identify as both Black and Indian-American, despite the fact that she is and always has been biracial.
It served as a preview for his debate with Harris next month, when he will likely serve up a similar mix of false claims and personal insults as he did in his debate with Biden — except this time he’ll be facing a candidate who will be able to respond to them (and who is leading him in the polls, not trailing).
He also seems more rattled by Harris — and more distracted. According to The Washington Post, people close to Trump “have raised concerns about how he will handle being onstage with a Black woman.” At least in his debate against Biden, Trump did mount something of a policy case, repeatedly returning to the president’s record on the economy and immigration.
The same vulnerabilities exist for Harris. It is unclear whether Trump will manage to seize on them.
This week in bipartisanship
Congress may be on recess, but it’s Friday, so I still have some quick updates on bipartisanship for you:
— The FDA is set to decide as soon as today whether to approve MDMA, the psychedelic drug commonly known as Ecstasy or Molly, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. A bipartisan group of 80 lawmakers urged the agency to approve the drug in a letter this week, led by Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), a retried three-star general who hopes the treatment will help veterans suffering from PTSD.
— 18 House Republicans penned a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) urging him to preserve the clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Republicans keep their House majority next year, a rare bipartisan defense of President Biden’s signature climate law.
— Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) became the first Republican senator to inch towards endorsing the PRO Act, a Democratic bill that would protect unions, telling Bloomberg that it is a “pretty good piece of legislation.”
— Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), a top Democrat on energy issues, endorsed the bipartisan permitting reform package crafted by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY) even as a coalition of climate groups announced their opposition.
— Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced a bill that would end the military draft.
More news to know
U.S., Qatar and Egypt invite Israel and Hamas for summit to finalize Gaza deal / Axios
Ukraine’s surprise cross-border incursion seen as a tactical reply to Russia’s grinding gains / AP
Harris rejects claims she would support Israel arms embargo / BBC
Trump plans light campaign schedule as Harris, Walz and Vance barnstorm battlegrounds / CNBC
Pelosi on Biden: ‘Never been that impressed with his political operation’ / Politico
The day ahead
President Biden has nothing on his public schedule.
Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz will campaign in Phoenix, Arizona. Watch at 8 p.m. ET
Donald Trump will campaign in Bozeman, Montana with Republican Senate nominee Tim Sheehy, who is seeking to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). Watch at 10 p.m. ET
Congress and the Supreme Court are on recess.
Before I go…
Here’s something fun: J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, the dueling candidates for vice president, may not have a lot in common. But they do share one thing: a fondness for Diet Mountain Dew.
Read more from The New York Times (gift link).
Gabe,
Thanks for keeping the bipartisan efforts in front of us. This info helps me calm certain friends and relatives with radical, game show ideas about our country :-)
p.s. diet mountain dew ? hopefully, only one can a day!
Can Harris require of ABC for the debate immediate, real time fact checking on all statements and suggestions, as Trump often makes.