Democrats mock 'coward' Trump for refusing second debate with Harris | US elections 2024

Kamala Harris' campaign on Friday escalated its taunts against “coward” Donald Trump for avoiding another presidential debate, with the Democratic candidate telling her Republican rival that he owes it to the voters to face her again.

The former US president announced on Thursday that there would be “no third debate”, two days after a lame performance at their heated meeting in Philadelphia, where Harris provoked him on a number of issues, including the size of crowds at his rallies.

In his post on his Truth Social network, Trump instead insisted he was the winner, citing fictitious polls and using a bizarre boxing analogy in which a defeated prizefighter demands a rematch.

The action sparked a mocking reaction from the Harris campaign team. Chairman David Plouffe said in a tweet: “We finally discover his totem animal: the chicken.”

On Friday, the Harris team increased the pressure, with a memo from spokesman Ian Sams saying Trump must be held accountable for his refusal to answer questions during the debate about whether he would block a national abortion ban or whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia.

“The debate was a disaster for Trump, yes. But these answers are just toxic. Under almost any other circumstance, any one of these answers could trigger a days-long media crisis for the candidate. Taken together, they are an unmitigated disaster,” Sams wrote.

“Trump should be held accountable for these positions.”

Harris, meanwhile, continued to push for the two to meet again. It would be their second meeting and third debate in the presidential campaign after Joe Biden's disastrous performance in June, which led to him giving up his re-election bid.

“The vice president is clear that she believes there should be another debate, and we do not view this as his final word,” Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Harris, told Politico. “[Trump] is currently processing his feelings after the very clear defeat on Tuesday evening.”

That call was repeated by some senior Republicans following a debate in which Trump passed up an opportunity to talk about immigration, a supposed strength of the country, and instead made unsubstantiated, confused claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents' pet cats and dogs.

When asked by the Associated Press about Trump's failure to pressure Harris on policy issues, John Thune of South Dakota, the second-highest Republican in the Senate, said: “Frankly, they could have done better.”

Another meeting, he said, would be “helpful,” adding: “I don't think they have sufficiently addressed the substance of their differences. I hope there is another debate.”

Harris was expected to say more about this week's debate later Friday during appearances in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, part of what her campaign described as an “aggressive campaign period” in swing states that will be crucial to the outcome of the November election.

At two raucous rallies in North Carolina on Thursday, she called on Trump to run against her again. “We owe it to the voters. Because the issue is … in this election, what's at stake couldn't be more important,” she told a crowd of an estimated 17,000 people in Greensboro.

Trump continued his campaign on Friday with a press conference in Los Angeles. Three days after the debate in Philadelphia, the Republican candidate is still facing criticism for his false claims that immigrants eat pets. Some allies blame the influence of conspiracy theorist and right-wing extremist Laura Loomer.

“They're eating the dogs, the people who came here, they're eating the cats,” Trump claimed during the debate. “They're eating the pets of the people who live there, and that's what's happening in our country, and it's a disgrace.”

Trump faced criticism for inviting Loomer, who has called the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States an “inside job,” to accompany him to the 9/11 commemoration on Wednesday. She was also reportedly part of his debate preparation team.

The website Semafor quoted an anonymous source close to Trump's campaign as saying that they were “100 percent” concerned about Loomer's influence on him.

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