Trump says he won’t debate Harris again
Former President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that there “will be no” second debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, two days after a faceoff in which he was widely criticized as delivering a poor performance filled with missed opportunities.
Rarely are the declarations he makes about his future plans ironclad. If anything, they are often the opening bid of a negotiation.
And so it was unclear Thursday whether his position would hold. Nonetheless, Trump made a declarative statement that would require some explanation should he reverse himself.
In a post on his social media website, Truth Social, and shortly after, at his rally in Tucson, Arizona, Trump maintained, despite overwhelming opinions to the contrary from commentators as well as some of his own advisers and allies, that he had won the debate with Harris on Tuesday night hosted by ABC News and that therefore he did not need to engage in another.
The Harris campaign, by contrast, immediately said at the end of Tuesday’s debate that it would like another.
“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH,’” Trump wrote, pointing to some unscientific internet polls suggesting that he won.
In his post Thursday, he accused Harris and the Biden administration of destroying the country.
“Everyone knows this, and all of the other problems caused by Kamala and Joe — it was discussed in great detail during the first debate with Joe, and the second debate with comrade Harris,” he said. In all capital letters, he added: “Kamala should focus on what she should have done during the last almost four year period. There will be no third debate!”
He reiterated that sentiment at the Tucson rally Thursday. “Because we’ve done two debates and because they were successful there will be no third debate,” Trump said.
Trump and his allies have criticized Harris for her lack of interviews, but the argument that she is shielding herself from scrutiny would presumably get harder if he holds firm on declining to debate again.
The campaigns have been discussing recently with NBC News about the possibility of another debate in the coming weeks. A spokesperson for NBC declined to comment.
Biden’s disastrous performance in the June debate against Trump precipitated the end of his reelection campaign. Biden and Trump had agreed to a second debate, hosted by ABC, in September. After Harris became the Democrats’ nominee, Trump announced the ABC debate would not happen, then said he had committed to it and then proceeded to toy with dropping out for days before ultimately going ahead with it.
Campaigning in North Carolina on Thursday, Harris said “we owe it to the voters” to debate again.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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