Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out another presidential debate against Kamala Harris as her campaign announced a massive fundraising haul in the hours after the two candidates met on stage.
Trump, the Republican nominee, posted on Truth Social that “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” following Tuesday’s debate against Harris and his June debate against President Joe Biden. In rejecting another debate, the former president suggested that a “prizefighter” who loses a bout is always the one to call for a rematch.
A day earlier, he had said, “I just don’t know,” to the question of whether he would meet Harris for another debate. Some Republicans, including the No. 2 GOP Senator John Thune, have urged Trump to debate against Harris again.
While he could still change his mind, his announcement means that Tuesday’s meeting will likely be the only time voters will see the two debate each other before the November election. More than 67 million people watched the Trump-Harris debate.
Harris, the Democratic nominee, said during a rally in North Carolina on Thursday she believes that she and the former president “owe it to voters” to debate again. Meanwhile, her campaign revealed that it had raised $47 million from nearly 600,000 donors in the 24 hours after her Tuesday debate against Trump.
“This historic, 24-hour haul reflects a strong and growing coalition of Americans united behind Vice President Harris’ candidacy that knows the stakes this November, and are doing their part to defeat Donald Trump this November,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said.
The Tuesday debate was the first time that Trump and Harris had met, and the vice president largely controlled the tenor, goading Trump into agitated responses that contained exaggerations and mistruths. It came two months after Trump’s debate against Biden, whose unsteady performance and meandering answers led him to end his reelection bid and endorse Harris as his replacement on the ticket.
Trump raised doubts earlier in the campaign as to whether he would debate Harris at all. The two eventually agreed on the Tuesday debate on ABC.
Trump called Harris a “no-show” for a debate date that had been proposed earlier this month. Instead of an event with Harris, Trump ended up going on Fox News for a solo town hall with host Sean Hannity.
Fox News has issued invitations to both campaigns for a debate in October.
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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