Vice President Kamala Harris wants another debate with Trump, her campaign said shortly after a televised confrontation in which she angered Trump by attacking the crowd at his campaign rally and Trump tried to label her a “Marxist.”
Trump declined to comment on the matter when he said in the spin room a few minutes after the game that he had to think about it.
“Under the bright lights, Americans were presented with the choice they will face at the ballot box this fall: go forward with Kamala Harris, or go backward with Trump,” Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote after the debate. “That’s what they saw tonight, and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”
Trump had previously called for three debates last month after President Biden withdrew from his campaign, having previously negotiated two debates with Biden. His stunning withdrawal from the race sparked a new wave of talk about the ABC debate.
But when the candidate sat down with friendly interviewer Sean Hannity from Fox News in the spin room after the debate and did not want to commit to an additional debate with Harris.
“Why should I have another debate?” Donald Trump said minutes after his debate with Kamala Harris ended on Tuesday
Going to the spinning room was one of the moves that contestants sometimes made to advance after performing on stage.
“I don’t know, I don’t want to think about it,” he replied when Hannity told him that Harris’ campaign wanted another one.
“But if you win the debate, I think maybe I shouldn’t do it. Why would I do another debate?” he said. He compared it to a boxer: “That’s, you know, what happens when you’re a prizefighter and you lose, you want another fight right away,” he said.
Trump admitted that he “might do it if it was on a fair network,” complaining that it was “three against one,” a reference to the times ABC moderators interrupted Trump’s remarks with fact checks.
Trump gave himself a good review, calling it his “best debate ever,” while also complaining about the moderators.
Hannity asked him again at the end of his interview whether he would do another debate, and Trump still sounded unwilling. “The reason you do a second debate is if you lose, and they lost … But I’ll think about it,” he said.
Second Lord Doug Emhoff said his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, won the debate
Harris put her hand on her chin when Trump called her a ‘Marxist’ during the debate
Trump went straight into the interview after the debate, with plans to be back on Fox on Wednesday morning
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Trump entered the race as the most experienced debater, having participated in seven presidential debates and a series of primaries. Harris, by contrast, ended her campaign early in the 2020 primary process.
Shortly after the debate, a CNN poll showed Harris beating Trump 63-37. Viewers who had watched the debate were asked who won.
One of the most memorable moments was when Harris teased Trump about his campaign rallies.
“People leave his meetings early because they’re tired and bored,” Harris said. “The only thing you don’t hear him talk about is you.”
Trump demanded an answer, even as moderator David Muir tried to ask him a question.
“People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go,” Trump countered. “She busses them in and pays them to be there and then shows them in a different light,” he said, citing a debunked theory that Harris relied on AI to generate an image of a packed rally.
Trump kept going on and on, claiming that migrants were eating people’s pets. ‘In Springfield [Ohio]They eat the dogs, the people that came in, they eat the cats. They eat – they eat the pets of the people that live there,’ which draws a fact check from the moderator.
“What an extreme…” Harris said with a laugh when asked for her response.