Trump offers three September debates against surging Harris

Donald Trump proposed three September debates against Kamala Harris Thursday as he sought to wrest back some of the attention lavished on his rival since her blockbuster entry into the U.S. presidential election.

Harris has ignited the Democratic ticket in the last 18 days, pulling in record fundraising and obliterating the Republican ex-president's polling lead to open up a much broader path to victory than her party would have dared to hope for just a month ago.

The country's first female, Black and South Asian vice president heads into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month on the back of a series of packed rallies that have won plaudits for a positive message that has reenergized the base.

Meanwhile Trump — who addressed journalists at his oceanfront estate in Florida — has found himself on unfamiliar ground as something of a bystander, eclipsed by Harris's rise as he has scaled back his own campaigning.

"I hope she agrees," Trump told journalists, after he said he had arranged debates with television networks on September 4, 10 and 25.

Harris responded Thursday that she would "look forward" to facing off on ABC News on Sept. 10, a previously scheduled debate that the two campaigns had sparred over after Trump temporarily backed out.

There was no immediate word from the Harris camp about the other proposed dates, the first with Trump-friendly Fox News and the final with NBC News.

  'Same policies' 

Trump revived a series of familiar attacks on his opponent — repeatedly questioning the intelligence of the former state attorney general and U.S. senator, in an event punctuated by falsehoods.

Trump made untrue claims on all manner of topics...