Update: At a rally in North Carolina on Saturday, Trump backed away from another debate, saying, “The problem with the other debates is that they’re too late. The voting has already begun.”
Vice President Kamala Harris He accepted CNN’s invitation to debate Donald Trump for a second time on October 23. The ball is now in the former president’s court.
After being crushed by Harris in the first debate, Earlier this month, Trump initially ruled out a second debate. “There will be no third debate!” he posted on Truth Social two days after the candidates faced off on ABC. But on Friday, he seemed more open to the idea. “If I feel like it’s right, I don’t know,” he told reporters at a news conference in California.
“Donald Trump would have no problem agreeing to this debate,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
Trump’s performance in the last debate was largely characterized by a series of malicious and inconsistent lies. As my colleague David Cohn has written:
He exposed one lie after another, often in a jumble of incomprehensible words, probably only his true followers would understand. Illegal immigrants are stealing and eating people’s pets in Ohio. (“I’ve seen people talking about it on television,” he said, by way of confirmation.) And illegal immigrants are violently occupying apartment complexes in Colorado. Doctors in Democratic states are executing newborn babies. Crime is down worldwide, but it’s up in America. Everybody wanted it, Democrats, Republicans, all the lawyers.Roe v. WadeIt’s overturned. Harris and the Democrats are plotting to confiscate all the guns. Joe Biden took money from Ukraine and China. Harris is a “Marxist” and hates Jews, Arabs, and Israel. He has nothing to do with Project 2025. Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the violence on January 6. Top professors at the Wharton School praised his tariff plan (which many economists said would lead to inflation and unemployment). The economy was the best it’s ever been when he was president.
Trump seemed to consider it a victory. “In the boxing or UFC world, when a fighter gets knocked out or gets knocked out, they stand up and yell, ‘Demand a rematch, demand a rematch!’ Well, the debates are no different. She lost badly last night. All the polls show us winning,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Whether Harris and Trump face off again or not, their running mates, Tim Walz and J.D. Vance, are scheduled to participate in a debate hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.
