Former President Trump said Thursday he would not take part in a new debate with Vice President Harris, quashing the possibility of the two candidates meeting again before Election Day.
“When a professional boxer loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, 'I want a rematch,'” Trump wrote on Truth Social, claiming he won Tuesday's debate with Harris despite some polls suggesting the opposite.
The former president maintained that issues such as inflation and immigration were discussed “at length” during his June debate with Biden and during his showdown with Harris on Tuesday night.
“She did not show up to the Fox debate and refused to appear on NBC and CBS,” Trump wrote. “Kamala should focus on what she should have done the last 4 years: NO 3RD DEBATE!”
Trump and Harris debated on Tuesday, their first face-to-face meeting since Harris became the Democratic nominee in late July. Harris repeatedly tried to get on Trump's nerves, often successfully, as Trump went off on tangents about crowd sizes, Biden and a conspiracy theory that immigrants had kidnapped pets in an Ohio town.
Harris' campaign almost immediately called for a second debate between the two candidates, although Trump was equivocal, suggesting he had no intention of holding another debate.
The former president had previously accepted a Fox News debate in early September and an NBC debate in late September, but Harris' campaign said the second debate was contingent on both candidates participating in a debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday.
A CNN early poll found that 63% of debate viewers said Ms Harris won Tuesday's debate, compared with 37% who said Mr Trump won. Several polls released Thursday showed Ms Harris widening her lead over Mr Trump nationally.
In an interview Wednesday morning, Trump cited multiple social media polls, including one published by C-SPAN, showing him to be more popular than Harris, and a Trump campaign poll showed that Trump's approval rating rose by two points during the debate, while Harris' approval rating remained flat in battleground states.
