Baku, August 9, AZERTAC

Donald Trump recommitted to debating Vice President Kamala Harris after recently backing out, holding a lengthy news conference Thursday in which he taunted his new rival, boasted of his crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and lashed out at questions about the enthusiasm her campaign has been generating, according to AP.

As the Republican presidential nominee addressed reporters at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, ABC announced that Trump and Harris, the Democratic nominee, have agreed to a Sept. 10 debate, setting up a widely anticipated faceoff in an already unparalleled election. Trump said he had proposed three debates with three television networks in September.

Trump again wrongly insisted there had been a “peaceful transfer” of power in 2021 and renewed attacks on Republican rivals like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, whom Trump has harshly criticized since Kemp refused to go along with his false theories of election fraud.

In taking questions from reporters for more than an hour, Trump tried to draw a contrast with Harris, who has not held a news conference since President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.

Trump’s decision to go on ABC sets up a high-stakes moment in an election where Biden’s catastrophic performance in the last debate set in motion his withdrawal.

Just five days earlier, he had declared he would not debate on ABC and said his agreement with the network had been “terminated.” He wrote on his social media site that if Harris wouldn’t appear on Fox News on Sept. 4 instead, “I won’t see her at all.”

On Thursday, he announced a change of heart — and tried to pressure Harris to agree to two more September debates on Fox and on NBC.

Asked what he will do if a Harris only agrees to the ABC debate, he said: “I don’t know how that’s gonna work out. We’d like to do three debates. We think we should do three debates.”

A few hours after the news conference, Harris told reporters she was “glad he has finally committed” to debate her on ABC on Sept. 10, the date that had originally been set for a Biden faceoff against Trump and which her campaign has long stuck to.