Trump says he won’t participate in another presidential debate
By Kate Sullivan, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would not participate in another presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump posted on Truth Social, referencing his first face-off with President Joe Biden in June and his second with Harris on Tuesday.
Harris’ campaign had called for another debate after the vice president and Trump faced off at ABC’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. Harris reiterated that call during a rally in Charlotte on Thursday, saying, “I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate because this election and what is at stake could not be more important.”
But Trump on Thursday appeared to end speculation about whether another debate would take place, saying that Harris “SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD.”
The Harris campaign said it does not take Trump’s announcement that there will not be another presidential debate at face value.
“He changes his position every day,” said a senior Harris adviser. “I predict there will be another.”
Following their Philadelphia debate, Trump defended his performance to reporters, claiming the ABC moderators were “very unfair” and that it was “three-on-one” during the debate. The next day on Fox News, Trump said he didn’t know if he wanted to participate in another debate as he continued to claim he had “won.”
“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.
According to a CNN Fact Check, as of Thursday morning, every major scientific poll about the debate had found that Harris won. That included a CNN/SSRS flash poll of registered voters who watched Tuesday’s debate, who broadly agreed that Harris outperformed Trump.
Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who endorsed Trump after suspending his own bid, said on Fox News that while Trump won the debate on “substance,” Harris “clearly won the debate in terms of her delivery, her polish, her organization and her preparation.”
Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the respective running mates of Trump and Harris, are scheduled to face off in a debate hosted by CBS on October 1.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s MJ Lee, Kaanita Iyer, Stephen Collinson and Daniel Dale contributed to this story.
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