Republican Donald Trump ruled out appearing at another debate with Democrat Kamala Harris two days after he delivered an uneven performance at their first showdown of the election cycle.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday, insisting that he won the lone showdown with Harris and didn’t need to debate again.
“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH,’” Trump wrote. He attacked Harris and President Joe Biden over immigration and inflation in his post, saying those issues were “discussed in great detail during the First Debate with Joe, and the Second Debate with Comrade Harris.”
Harris’ campaign immediately challenged Trump to a second televised contest after Tuesday’s debate. A CNN snap poll showed that viewers thought Harris performed better than Trump, and the vice president’s odds of winning the election rose in betting markets following the debate.
The vice president spoke at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday shortly after Trump’s statement, where she said the candidates “owe it to the voters to have another debate.”
“This election and what is at stake could not be more important.” Harris added. It was unclear, however, if the vice president was directly responding to Trump’s post ruling out further televised debates between the two.
Biden dropped out of the race in July after a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Harris quickly replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Trump and allies have lashed out at the ABC News moderators who hosted Tuesday’s debate, saying they were biased in favor of Harris. The moderators corrected on-air the former president’s false claims that immigrants were eating household pets in Ohio and that some states allow babies to be killed after birth.
Trump on Wednesday said he was not inclined to debate Harris again, but floated the idea of another contest hosted by Fox News or NBC News. Harris’ campaign has ruled out a forum with Fox News, a conservative outlet favorable to the former president.
Trump and Harris’ running mates, Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are slated to hold their own debate on Oct. 1 with CBS News.
(Updates with Harris remarks, details on vice presidential debate in paragraphs 8-10)