Trump rules out new Harris debate as battle resumes in swing states

Donald Trump said on Thursday he will not participate in another debate with Kamala Harris as the White House rivals return to the swing states that will decide a nail-biting US presidential election.

Two days after his first televised confrontation with the Democratic vice president, the former Republican president lashed out as Harris put Trump on the defensive and got under his skin with a series of barbs.

“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” the 78-year-old wrote on his platform Truth Social, also mentioning in his assessment the earlier debate with Joe Biden in June, which knocked the incumbent out of the race, as well as his argument with Harris on Tuesday.

Trump claimed: “Polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris” – even though several snap polls showed that Harris was clearly ahead in the duel watched by more than 67 million Americans.

At a rally in the key swing state of North Carolina, Harris insisted that the debate should be held again before the November 5 election. It was not clear whether she knew about Trump's statement.

“Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate, and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another one,” Harris said to cheers from her supporters in the city of Charlotte.

“Because this election and what’s at stake couldn’t be more important,” added the Democrat, who later spoke at a second rally in nearby Greensboro.

– “More aggressive” –

The 59-year-old referred to several statements by Trump on issues such as abortion and his widely derided claim that he had “concepts for a plan” to reform the US health care system.

Harris' campaign team previously said she was in a “more aggressive” phase of her White House bid and was “trying to capitalize on her decisive victory in the debate and build momentum.”

On Thursday, Trump took the stage in Tucson, Arizona, and leveled even harsher criticism at the ABC journalists who moderated his debate with Harris.

He called the vice president a “madwoman” and said that the two journalists David Muir and Linsey Davis were biased in her favor.

“The two worst presenters you've ever seen,” he said, later accusing Davis of looking at him “with hatred in his eyes.”

Trump was supposed to talk mainly about the country's “weakening economy,” his campaign said. But in his hour-long speech, he repeatedly digressed, insulted Harris, and repeated ugly and unfounded accusations and conspiracy theories about migrants.

With 54 days to go until the election, Trump and Harris remain neck and neck in the polls. The outcome will likely depend on a few thousand voters in half a dozen swing states, including North Carolina and Arizona.

Harris has closed on Trump's lead since Biden ended his re-election campaign on July 21, but insists she is the underdog in perhaps the shortest and most dramatic campaign in U.S. political history.

In addition, the election further fuels political tensions in an already highly polarized country.

– 'Dirt' –

The White House on Thursday condemned a false story about migrants eating domestic cats and dogs in Ohio – which Trump spread during the debate – as “scum” and said it puts “lives at risk.”

On Thursday, Trump repeated these false accusations against Haitian migrants in his speech in Tucson.

The US government has declared the formal vote count on January 6, 2025, a “special security event” – apparently amid fears that there could be a repeat of the storming of the US Capitol in 2021 by Trump supporters who refused to accept his defeat to Biden.

The announcement came after Republican Alberto Gonzales, who served as attorney general under President George W. Bush, said he supported Harris because Trump's conduct that day made him a threat to the rule of law.

But Trump and Harris have their eyes firmly on the battlefields.

Harris returns to crucial Pennsylvania on Friday to attend campaign events in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre before attending an awards dinner with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Saturday.

Trump will deliver a speech on the cost of living in Las Vegas on Friday, targeting Nevada, another swing state.

Harris' running mate Tim Walz is touring Michigan and Wisconsin from Thursday to Saturday as part of his campaign's “New Way Forward” tour.

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