MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ten years ago today in Ferguson, Mo., about 20 minutes from here, a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown Jr., a young Black man. We'll look at what's changed since then, but first...
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
There are less than 90 days until the November election, and it feels like the campaign is in full force.
MARTIN: For the first time since Vice President Harris announced her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her opponent, former President Donald Trump, spoke at a news conference. It was rambling and chaotic. Meanwhile, Harris and Walz continue their debut tour with a stop in the battleground state of Michigan.
FADEL: For more on Trump and Harris' latest appearances, NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is with us. Hi, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
FADEL: Good morning. So let's start with Trump's press conference yesterday. What did we learn from it?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, the main news we learned from it is that Trump is now open to doing three debates with Kamala Harris. Now, that comes after weeks of waffling about whether he would debate her at all. Now, he named three dates in September on which he would debate, and three networks - ABC News, NBC News and Fox News. Shortly after he said this, Harris said she would do the September 10 debate on ABC - now, Trump had backed out of that previously - and she also told reporters she's open to other debates, but she didn't commit to anything.
FADEL: And Trump took questions for nearly an hour. What kind of things did reporters ask him?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, this was rambling and chaotic, yes, so I can't really get to everything here, but I'm going to hit on a few things. He got to a lot of topics that we had all, in the press corps, been wondering about for the last few weeks. Now, one is his comments that Harris only recently started saying she was Black. Now, our reporter asked, how is that true? She went to a historically Black university.
FADEL: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: He didn't seem to want to answer. He said repeatedly, you'll have to ask her. Now, another reporter asked how he feels about Harris' recent large crowds, and that really seemed to get under his skin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, give me a break.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Listen, I had 107,000 people in New Jersey. You didn't report it. I'm so glad you asked. What did she have yesterday, 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you'd say my campaign is finished.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, a quick fact check. That New Jersey rally - it really was big, but the idea that it was 100,000 has been fact-checked. It does seem to be too high.
FADEL: Yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: But again, you can hear there he seemed quite angry. One other thing is he was asked about abortion - if his FDA would revoke access to mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medication abortions. He indicated he was open to it. Now, even by Trump's standards, really what I'm saying is he was evasive and unclear and pretty combative.
FADEL: So that's what the press wanted to know. What did Trump seem to want to get out of this press conference?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, a few things - first of all, to say that he would do the debates; now, second, to slam Harris and Tim Walz, to say that they're too liberal. He said a couple of times he doesn't think it's fair to run against her, since Biden was the one running in the primary, and he also slammed her for not doing enough press interviews, which has become a widespread criticism among Republicans of Harris.
Now, he took that a bit further. He had some pretty ugly criticisms, multiple times saying she isn't intelligent. At one point, he said she's, quote, "not smart enough to do a news conference." The bottom line seems to be that Harris and Walz have gotten so much attention, he just wanted some for himself.
FADEL: So Harris, meanwhile, along with Walz, made an appearance in Detroit with the UAW labor union. What did she say?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, she thanked them for their endorsement. She talked a lot about how unions are great. They create fairness. Now, what's striking is just that she and Walz just seem to be putting out this positive message, which really seems to be what they're leaning into, since she is the new candidate at a time when many American voters were just exhausted by Biden and Trump.
FADEL: That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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