Trump’s pledge to debate Harris comes as she rises in a key poll.
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Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 42 per cent to 37 per cent in the race for the November 5 US presidential election, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday (US time).
‘Radical’ Walz
The poll found Harris had widened her lead since a July 22-23 Reuters/Ipsos survey, which found her up 37 per cent to 34 per cent over Trump.
The nationwide poll of 2045 US adults, conducted August 2-7, found 4 per cent of those surveyed backed independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., down from 10 per cent in July.
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Thursday’s event was Trump’s first public appearance since Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Trump called Walz a “radical left man”.
“Between her and him, there’s never been anything like this,” Trump said. “There’s certainly never been anybody so liberal like these two.”
He repeatedly suggested Harris was not intelligent enough to debate him. Harris, for her part, has tried to goad Trump into debating and told an audience in Atlanta recently that if he had anything to say about her, he should “say it to my face.”
Trump grew visibly perturbed when pressed on Harris’ crowds and newfound Democratic enthusiasm, dismissing a question about his lighter campaign schedule as stupid.
Trump has expressed frustration for Harris treatment by the media.
On Thursday, Trump said the media had underestimated the size of his crowds compared to those of Harris.
“If Kamala has 1000 people at a rally, the press goes ‘crazy,’ and talks about how ‘big’ it was – And she pays for her ‘crowd.’ When I have a rally, and 100,000 people show up, the fake news doesn’t talk about it,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump says he has not “recalibrated” his campaign despite facing a new opponent, a dynamic some Republican strategists have quietly complained about.
When asked what assets Harris possessed, Trump said: “She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.”
Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — accused Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, of previously downplaying that she is Black.
Trump suggested abortion will not be a major issue in the campaign and the outcome in November.
He insisted that the matter “has become much less of an issue” since the Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion services and returned control of the matter to state governments. But the issue is widely seen as a general election liability, and Trump named states such as Ohio and Kansas that have since voted to protect abortion rights.
Trump argued that Democrats, Republicans and “everybody” are pleased with the results of the 2022 ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
The court’s decision, issued months ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, is widely cited as a reason that Democrats fared much better than expected in House and Senate contests. And Democrats have hammered Trump in paid advertisements blaming him and the justices he appointed for ending Roe.
AP, Reuters
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