Vice President Kamala Harris is "ready for a second debate" after a stellar performance on Tuesday night, but Republican nominee Donald Trump isn’t so sure.
“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump,” Jen O’Malley-Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, said in a statement. “That’s what they saw [Tuesday night] and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?"
Trump, meanwhile, dodged questions about a second debate in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity after Tuesday night’s head-to-head. When Hannity told Trump that Harris wanted a second debate and asked whether he wanted the same, the former president was noncomittal.
“That’s because she lost. She wants it because she lost,” Trump responded.
“Do you have an answer?” Hannity asked.
“Well, I don’t know. I have to think about it,” Trump answered, before comparing Harris to a “prize fighter” who lost and immediately seeks a “rematch.”
This election season’s debate proceedings have been quite the debacle. In May, President Joe Biden and Trump agreed that they would not participate in the usual trio of fall debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized presidential debates for over 30 years.
Instead, Biden and Trump agreed to two debates, one on June 27 and one on Sept. 10, hosted by CNN and ABC News, respectively.
But after a catastrophic first debate performance led to Harris taking Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, all future debates were up in the air. Trump repeatedly tried to get out of the Sept. 10 debate with Harris, drawing on a wealth of excuses, including that ABC News was an unfair host.
After Tuesday night, it looks like he’s returning to that age-old excuse.
“Would you be inclined to say yes?” Hannity asked Trump.
“Maybe if it was on a fair network I would do that,” he responded.
Though a second debate between the two presidential candidates remains uncertain, the vice-presidential nominees, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. J.D. Vance, have agreed to face off on Oct. 1 in New York City.
