Vice President Kamala Harris accepted an invitation to an Oct. 23 debate matchup on CNN, but former President Donald Trump is still shying away—even though his fellow Republicans are pushing him to step up.
On Wednesday, the Harris-Walz campaign released a list of seven Republicans calling on Trump to debate again. That list included: former Trump advisers Kellyanne Conway and Steve Cortes; Sens. Lindsey Graham, Rick Scott and Thom Tillis; Trump donor Dan Eberhart; and former Rep. Carlos Curbelo.
But Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t want to go toe-to-toe with Harris again.
Two nights after the Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC News, Trump posted the following on his social media site Truth Social: "When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are 'I want a rematch.' Polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats' radical left candidate... and she immediately called for a second debate. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”
At a Saturday rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump argued that he declined CNN’s debate invite because Oct. 23 is “just too late” and “voting has already started.” (A reminder: Election Day is Nov. 5.)
The likely reason for Trump’s reluctance? Harris was deemed the clear winner in CNN/SSRS’s snap polling, and her lead went up after the debate performance. According to 538’s compilation of polls, she is currently ahead of Trump in national polling by 2.6 percentage points.
Could it be that Trump knows he has too much to lose and can’t risk the embarrassment of another defeat?
Despite Trump’s reluctance, American voters want another debate too: Civiqs and Quinnipiac polling show that 58% of voters and 64% of voters, respectively, want to see another Harris-Trump showdown.
Instead, Trump has opted to shrink away from sharing a stage with Harris. On Tuesday, both campaigns confirmed dueling late-night Univision town halls on Oct. 8 and Oct. 10.
Is he really “chicken,” like the Democratic National Committee says? For once, it’s not Trump who’s doing the name-calling.
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