Trump says he’ll debate Harris

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday committed to debating Vice President Kamala Harris — and said he would be “willing” to face off against her more than once.

The next debate, which is scheduled for Sept. 10, is to be hosted by ABC News. Trump in recent days has pushed for the more conservative Fox News to hold the debate, calling ABC “a joke.”

But during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Trump said he would debate Harris, regardless of whether it was on ABC, and said he “would be willing to do more than one debate actually.”

While Trump said he was “not thrilled with ABC” — which he said he watched on Monday and had concluded was favorable to President Joe Biden and Harris — he said “debating is important for a presidential race.”

“I think if you're the Democrat nominee or the Republican nominee, you really have an obligation to debate,” Trump said.

Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump and Biden in May agreed to two debates — one on June 27, hosted by CNN, and another on Sept. 10, to be televised on ABC. Biden’s disastrous performance in the June debate ultimately led top Democrats to wage a weeks-long — and ultimately successful — campaign to pressure him to leave the race.

Trump said he believed Harris would be “easier” to defeat than Biden “because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much.”

Still, on Tuesday afternoon the Trump campaign released a memo from pollster Tony Fabrizio, in which he argued that Harris would see a polling bump that would temporarily put her ahead of Trump in surveys.

“Given what has happened over the past couple of days and her impending VP choice, there is no question that Harris will get her bump earlier than the Democrat’s Convention,” Fabrizio wrote. ”And that bump is likely to start showing itself over the next few days and will last a while until the race settles down.”

The Trump campaign’s conference call was focused on immigration — an issue the former president plans to make a centerpiece of his attacks against Harris. The call took place while Harris held her first campaign rally, which took place near Milwaukee, which hosted last week’s Republican National Convention.