Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
He said on Thursday \u2013 two days after the pair\u2019s first showdown in Philadelphia \u2013 that Harris only wanted a rematch because he \u201cclearly\u201d won.<\/p>\n
Several instant polls taken after Tuesday\u2019s contest indicated voters felt Harris had performed better than her Republican opponent.<\/p>\n
Trump added that Harris should instead \u201cfocus\u201d on her job as vice-president.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Harris responded by saying they \u201cowe\u201d voters another debate because \u201cwhat is at stake could not be more important\u201d.<\/p>\n
Polls suggest the two candidates are in an extremely tight race with just two months to go before the election.<\/p>\n
Both claimed victory after Tuesday\u2019s 90-minute debate on ABC News, in which Harris rattled Trump with a string of personal attacks that put him on the defensive. These included comments about the size of his rally crowds and his conduct during the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.<\/p>\n
Trump and his supporters have since accused the two ABC journalists that moderated the debate of being unfair and biased in favour of Harris. He said on Thursday that he did not need another debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are \u2018I want a rematch\u2019,\u201d Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats\u2019 radical left candidate\u2026 and she immediately called for a second debate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The former president held a rally in Arizona on Thursday and gave an interview with Telemundo Arizona backstage. \u201cWe just don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary,\u201d he said of a second debate with Harris. \u201cWe think we\u2019ve discussed everything and I don\u2019t think they want it either.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Harris campaign, however, called for a second debate immediately after Philadelphia and continued to do so on Thursday. They said voters \u201cgot to see the choice they will face at the ballot box: moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cVice-President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?\u201d the campaign said.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the debate, various Trump campaign surrogates \u2013 including Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz \u2013 said they believed Trump would welcome another debate.<\/p>\n
However, Trump said on Fox News the following morning that the debate had been \u201crigged\u201d and that he was \u201cless inclined\u201d to attend another after his \u201cgreat night\u201d.<\/p>\n
His decision on Thursday also appeared to contradict earlier messaging from his own campaign. On Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, told CNN that Trump \u201chas already said that he is going to do three debates\u201d.<\/p>\n
Both campaigns had reportedly been in discussions over a debate on NBC News on 25 September. The network has not commented on Trump\u2019s latest statement.<\/p>\n
\u2018Trump needs a new angle\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee \u2013 an organisation that has advised the Harris-Walz campaign on economic messaging \u2013 told the BBC that Trump\u2019s decision was a \u201cdouble favour\u201d to the Harris campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cVoters will have a lasting impression of Kamala Harris as looking presidential and standing on their side,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will probably do her very well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnother debate would potentially help Harris, but could also shake up the existing glow that surrounds her,\u201d Mr Green added.<\/p>\n Jeremy Petersen, an independent voter from Utah, told the BBC that he was not surprised by Trump\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIf [Trump] doesn\u2019t feel like he can score some social media soundbites, there\u2019s no benefit for him to show up,\u201d said Mr Petersen, who added that he would probably support Harris after the Philadelphia debate.<\/p>\n \u201cHe felt that Harris wouldn\u2019t have the type of performance she did and now he\u2019s running scared,\u201d Mr Petersen added. \u201cHe can\u2019t stop her momentum via debate so he needs a new angle.\u201d<\/p>\n Televised debates date back to 1960, when John F Kennedy faced off against Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n There are traditionally two or three presidential debates happening in most election cycles, along with at least one vice-presidential debate.<\/p>\n That tradition, however, was upended in July, when Joe Biden withdrew from the election weeks after a disastrous performance against Trump in the first debate.<\/p>\n The subsequent debate between Harris and Trump followed weeks of back and forth over whether it would go ahead, and under what conditions.<\/p>\n Trump previously suggested additional debates on Fox and NBC News, although Harris only agreed to ABC.<\/p>\n In his Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said his rival \u201crefused\u201d to do the additional debates.<\/p>\n Statistics from media analytics firm Nielsen show that 67.1m people watched the debate, a significantly higher figure than the 51.3m who tuned into the June debate between Trump and Biden.<\/p>\n Polls suggest Harris and Trump are in an extremely tight race in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n A Reuters\/Ipsos poll on Thursday indicated Harris had a five-point lead over Trump nationally, while 53% of respondents said that she won Tuesday\u2019s debate.<\/p>\n The post Trump rules out another presidential debate against Harris<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Trump rules out another presidential debate against Harris<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November\u2019s election. He said on Thursday \u2013 two days after the pair\u2019s first showdown in Philadelphia \u2013 that Harris only wanted a rematch because he \u201cclearly\u201d won. Several instant polls taken after Tuesday\u2019s contest indicated voters felt Harris had performed better […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}