In the US election campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump is rejecting another TV debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. “There will be no third debate,” he wrote on Thursday in capital letters and with exclamation marks on his online platform Truth Social – not only counting the duel against Harris on Tuesday, but also the debate with President Joe Biden on June 27, which led to the incumbent’s decision not to run again. Harris, meanwhile, said she wanted a second TV debate with Trump.
According to many experts, Harris gave a convincing performance in her first meeting with Trump, forcing the Republican onto the defensive with numerous targeted attacks. Immediately afterward, her campaign team challenged Trump to a second TV debate.
At first, the 78-year-old had not ruled it out and named NBC and Fox as possible hosts, but now his rejection came on Truth Social. He turned the TV debate into a victory for himself and wrote: “When a prizefighter loses a fight, his first words afterward are: ‘I want revenge.'” That is why Harris wants a second debate. The polls clearly show that he has won the duel against her, wrote the right-wing populist.
Meanwhile, Harris said at a campaign event in the important swing state of North Carolina on Thursday that she and Trump should face off again. “Two days ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate, and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another one,” Harris told supporters in the city of Charlotte.
“This election and what is at stake could not be more important,” Harris stressed. It was not immediately clear whether she already knew about Trump’s cancellation at the time.
Trump, for his part, campaigned on Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, near the Mexican border. He will focus on “our struggling economy and rising housing costs,” his campaign team said in advance.
In Arizona, Trump then reiterated his racist accusations that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating the dogs and cats of residents. “This was a wonderful community, it’s terrible what happened,” Trump said.
According to the conspiracy narrative spread by Trump and his Republicans, there was a bomb threat in Springfield on Thursday. The town hall and an elementary school were closed, the city administration announced on Facebook. The warning was received by email in the morning. Attempts are currently being made to locate the author of the email.
A snap poll by CNN after the first TV debate between Trump and Harris favored the Democratic candidate: 63 percent of respondents believed that Harris had put in a better performance. In a survey by the YouGov institute on the question of who had presented a clearer plan, Harris also came in ahead of Trump (32 percent) with 43 percent.
