(Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he is willing to debate his Democratic rival Kamala Harris three times in September on different networks during a news conference on Thursday at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence.
Trump said he wanted to hold debates on September 4 on Fox, September 10 on ABC and September 25 on NBC. He did not offer specific terms, such as whether there would be an audience, and it was not immediately clear whether his campaign had made a proposal to Harris' camp.
The conference was Trump's first public appearance since Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.
Harris, the US vice president, and Walz headlined rallies in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday, drawing tens of thousands of attendees in a fresh sign of how her late entry into the race has galvanized Democrats.
Her rapid rise, following President Joe Biden's decision last month to abandon his faltering campaign, has sent Trump's team scrambling to recalibrate their strategy and messaging. Opinion polls show Harris has erased the lead Trump had built over Biden, and Democrats have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from voters and big donors in a matter of weeks.
The Harris campaign canceled events on Thursday in North Carolina and on Friday in Georgia, where Tropical Storm Debby is bringing heavy rain and dangerous flooding. The Democrats will head to Arizona and Nevada later this week, visiting two more swing states likely to play a key role in the November 5 election.
Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, also canceled campaign events in North Carolina on Thursday due to the storm. He has spent the last few days trailing Harris and Walz around the country, an unusual move intended to provide a "contrast," he told reporters on Wednesday.