The second-ranking Senate Republican, Senate Majority Leader John Thune of North Dakota, said former President Trump should agree to a second debate with Vice President Harris.
Thune, the leading candidate to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the next Senate Republican leader, said Trump needs to do more to highlight the substantive differences between the two presidential candidates, something he believes was underplayed in the first debate.
Asked whether Trump should agree to a second debate, Thune told The Associated Press in an interview: “I would. I think it would be beneficial.”
“I don't think they've dug deep enough into the essence of the differences and I think elections are always about differences. The contrast this time couldn't be clearer in terms of their track record, their positions and their vision for the future,” Thune said.
“It's really important to fight that out on the debate stage, and I don't think they're doing that enough. [Tuesday] “It's night,” he said.
Trump, citing anonymous polls from battleground states, said he won the first debate and therefore saw no need to face Harris onstage again, and said he would not agree to a second debate.
“When a professional boxer loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, 'I want a rematch,'” Trump wrote.
But many Republican senators walked away from the debate disappointed.
Republican lawmakers said the ABC News hosts pushed back against Trump's answers but failed to fact-check Harris when she dodged their first question and didn't ask tough follow-up questions.
Thune said he didn't think the debate would have a big impact on the election, but that Trump needed to do more to highlight his policy differences with his opponents.
“There's been a lot of discussion about the hosts fact-checking Trump but not Harris,” he said.
“I think she's gotten by in some ways without having to defend her record, but at some point she's going to have to, and I think President Trump is in the best position to force her to defend her record on the border and on inflation,” he said.
“I think this case should be prosecuted. Frankly, they could have done a lot better,” he said. [Tuesday] “Night,” he added.
