Donald Trump on Saturday ruled out a second debate against Kamala Harris ahead of the November 5 election, saying it was “too late” with voting already having begun in some states. Earlier on Saturday, Harris’ campaign said she had accepted an invitation from broadcaster CNN to take part in a debate on October 23. It would have been the candidates’ second debate, following a September 10 encounter in which most pundits said she had won.
“The American people should have another opportunity to watch Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate before they vote,” her campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
“I hope (Trump) will join me,” Harris wrote on the post.
Trump had claimed during a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina that he would like to debate – describing it as “good fun” – but the idea was scuppered as early voting had begun in some states.
He said, “It is too late now, voting has already started.”
He told a large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters that CNN had been “very fair” when he debated President Joe Biden in June, “but they won’t be fair again.”
Vice President Harris replaced her boss at the top of the Democratic ticket after the 81-year-old Biden’s poor performance against Trump.
With Trump dropping out of the race, 78-year-old Trump, the oldest presidential candidate ever, will face a much younger Harris, 59.
Voting continues
Saturday’s announcement comes as voting has already begun in some states, which are set to be very close contests.
The outcome is expected to depend on seven crucial states, including North Carolina.
Trump addressed the crowd from behind bulletproof glass in the port city of Wilmington, following a second assassination attempt against him.
A gunman was seen at his golf course in Florida last Sunday, and security agents foiled any plot to harm the former president.
In July, Trump was shot in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. The US Secret Service, which protects the candidate, on Friday admitted “shortcomings” and “complacency” in the shocking security lapse.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric
Trump won North Carolina against Biden in the 2020 election.
But Harris is aiming to flip the southeastern state to Democrats, riding on support from African Americans and young voters.
Trump’s speech on Saturday further reinforced the radical anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become a centerpiece of his campaign, in which he falsely claimed that migrants are “invading villages and cities throughout the Midwest.”
He also promised the crowd that the United States would “get to Mars before my term is over.”
The former president is facing a new challenge in North Carolina after a shocking report revealed Thursday that Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor whom Trump has endorsed, called himself a “black Nazi” and made other inflammatory comments on a porn website’s message board more than a decade ago.
Robinson denounced CNN’s report, calling it an “obscene lie.”
The presidential race is fiercely contested and every vote will count in the election, but Trump has once again refused to say whether he will accept defeat if he loses.
Trump faces criminal charges for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election results after his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
