Trump says he isn't 'spending a lot of time' preparing for his debate with Kamala Harris
Ian Maule/Getty Images, ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty Images
- Trump says he's not putting in too much time preparing for his debate with Kamala Harris.
- "You have to know your subject," he said. "And I think I know it better than anybody."
- He also said he would rather the debate be held on Fox News instead of ABC News.
Former President Donald Trump said he's not devoting much time to preparing for his upcoming debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
During a visit to a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, Trump was asked by a reporter how he was preparing for the debate on September 10.
He answered with a swift, "I'm not."
"I'm not spending a lot of time on it. I think my whole life, I've been preparing for the debate," he said during the visit on Monday.
Trump added that he thought it wasn't possible to cram "30 years of knowledge in one week."
"You know there's a little debate prep. But I've always done it more or less the same way. You have to know your subject," he said.
"And I think I know it better than anybody," he added.
In response to BI's request for comment, Trump's spokesperson Steven Cheung said: "As President Trump said, he's been preparing all his life and he holds rallies and policy events and he regularly interacts with the press, which is a form of getting ready, something Comrade Kamala refuses to do."
Representatives for Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Trump's comments in Virginia came after he said that he didn't have a problem with microphones being unmuted, a change that Harris' campaign requested following President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance with Trump in June.
"Doesn't matter to me, I'd rather have it probably on," Trump said of the microphones. "The truth is, they're trying to get out of it because she doesn't want to debate."
Trump also now wants the debate to be hosted on Fox News instead of ABC News, citing his pending lawsuit against ABC and host George Stephanopoulos, which he said would create a "conflict of interest."
However, he had previously agreed to have a debate on ABC.
Trump is also no stranger to debate rules — his debate with Biden on CNN was subject to a series of rules, with mics muted while the other party was speaking and no live audience.
With 70 days until the election, the race is heating up. Harris officially accepted her party's nomination during the last day of the Democratic National Convention on Thursday.