Trump offers excuses for refusing new Harris debate

With voting less than a month away, it’s too late to hold a new face off with his Democratic rival, the former US president said

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that he is not going to debate his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris again before the November 5 election, and provided several reasons for the decision.

Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, a few hours after Fox News reported that it had made a final pitch to host a televised face-off between the two US presidential candidates in Pennsylvania on October 24 or 27.

“It is very late in the process, [early] voting has already begun – there will be no rematch!” he wrote in an all-caps.

The former president implied that he had been victorious in his first and only debate with Harris on September 10. “The first thing a prizefighter does when he loses a fight is say that he ‘demands A Rematch,’” he said of his rival in the race for the White House.

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A poll commissioned by CNN suggested that 67% of registered voters who watched that debate believed Harris to be the winner.

“Besides, Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Trump pointed out.

He was referring to the vice president’s appearance on ABC’s program ‘The View’ on Tuesday, during which the hosts pressed Harris to name a decision she would have made differently if she had been the US president instead of Joe Biden. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” the Democratic nominee replied.

Harris joined the presidential race in June as Biden stepped down as his party’s candidate after a poor performance in his debate with Trump on June 27.

Another reason presented by the Republican contender for not needing to debate his opponent again is because he is “leading in the polls, with the lead getting bigger by the day – and leading in all swing states.”

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According to polling averages provided by ABC News on Thursday, Harris is actually in the lead, on 48.4%, with Trump 2.5% behind.

The former president previously declined the offer by Harris to hold a debate on CNN on October 23. Instead, he suggested another face-off on Fox News on September 4 or on September 25 on NBC News, but the vice president never confirmed her participation.