Donald Trump remains stubborn: There will not be another TV debate against Kamala Harris. He sounded similar before, and his people are already opening a back door.
“An old man shouting at clouds,” is how Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz commented on Donald Trump’s appearance in the recent TV debate. The sentence hit home. The former president handled the debate against Kamala Harris grimly and unconfidently. It seemed almost grotesque when he spoke of Haitians eating pets in Ohio – and responded to the moderators’ correction with a helpless “but they say that on TV.”
Kamala Harris wants to meet Donald Trump again
Last Wednesday, the whole country could see: Donald Trump, this imposing figure, is an old man. There is not much left of the virile street-fighter Trump of 2016. Nor of the “my job is not done yet” Trump of 2020. What remains are will-o’-the-wisps and doomsday tales. For Donald Trump, it is not just the year 2024 that is in its autumn. He has now stubbornly announced that he will forego another debate, as his opponent is demanding from the Democrats.
Harris is like a “prize fighter who immediately demands revenge after losing a fight,” Trump writes on his network “Truth Social.” For him, who according to the majority opinion clearly lost the television debate, the situation is clear: As with Joe Biden, he clearly won, and another showdown is not necessary. And if the media see it differently, that only shows “how biased” they are. In short: The Donald is out. But he has already been out once.
Trump team already named another date
After Joe Biden withdrew as the Democratic candidate in July, the question of a debate between Trump and Biden’s successor Harris immediately arose. At first he didn’t want to run against her at all, then suddenly he wanted to run against her several times. At the beginning of August, the Trump team even named specific dates and channels: ABC on September 10, NBC on September 25. At the time, it was Kamala Harris who did not want to confirm the second meeting. Despite Trump’s cancellation, the last word on this matter has probably not yet been spoken.
Trump attacks Democrats: “That’s why I got a bullet to the head”
Because he and his advisors are keeping a back door open. Even before the TV debate, Trump complained about the alleged bias of the broadcaster ABC. He said afterwards that he had not debated against one “person, but against three,” meaning that the two moderators had all too obviously been on Kamala Harris’ side.
Is Trump escalating the allegations?
Media sympathetic to the Republican are already dragging their first seconds to the microphones, demanding that ABC investigate the “manipulation allegations”. Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, for example, complains that Trump’s claims were immediately checked, but those of Kamala Harris were not. Nothing seems too far away to be used against the ex-president. The friendship between Harris’ husbands and Dana Walden, head of Disney and thus also of ABC, was a disadvantage for Donald Trump, the right-wing news station “Newsmax” seriously speculates.
These seemingly absurd discussions have so far only been raging in the circles of Trump and his supporters. But the Republican has a knack for escalating such “accusations” to the general public. And does so until he can use them as an opportunity to demand another TV debate. As “revenge” for the injustice suffered. Kamala Harris will probably like that.
Sources: CBS on X, “Newsmax”, Donald Trump on “Truth Social”, PBS on YouTube, Reuters
