“It's too late for another debate,” former President Trump said Saturday afternoon after Vice President Harris accepted CNN's invitation for a second debate.
“She's had one debate. I've had two. It's too late to do another one. I would have liked to in many ways, but it's too late now. The votes are over,” Trump said at a campaign event in Wilmington, North Carolina.
“She had a chance to do it on Fox,” Trump said, “and they invited us, and I waited and I waited and they said no. They said no, but now she's saying she wants to do the debate on CNN right before the election because she's losing badly.”
Harris' campaign announced Saturday that she will take part in another debate scheduled by CNN on Oct. 23. The two first debated in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, moderated by ABC News, in what was widely seen as a good night for Harris.
“The American people deserve the opportunity to watch Vice President Kamala Harris debate Donald Trump one more time before voting,” Jen O'Malley Dillon, campaign chair for the Harris-Waltz campaign, said in a statement. “Having only one general election debate is unprecedented in modern history. The debates are a unique opportunity for voters to see the candidates side-by-side and evaluate their competing visions for America.”
But Trump's comments suggest he remains undeterred by the idea of another debate with Harris. Fox News reissued an invitation for the two to debate next month. Trump had previously supported a debate with Fox News, but seemed unsure after the first one.
The Harris campaign also did not accept Fox News' invitation.
Trump's campaign in the Tar Heel State was overshadowed by a shocking CNN report about Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who said he had made eyebrow-raising comments in a messaging forum on a pornography site, including calling himself a “black Nazi.”
The news throws another curveball into what is expected to be a hotly contested gubernatorial race and could also impact Trump's candidacy in North Carolina. Sources told The Hill that Robinson will not attend the former president's Wilmington rally.
