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Trump rejects second Kamala debate on CNN: ‘She’s had her chance to do it with Fox’

September 22, 2024 | | Print Article

Vice President Kamala Harris’ “rematch” aspirations found former President Donald Trump clear on what he thought about another debate.

For the first time in decades, the race for the White House saw the campaigns bypass the Commission on Presidential Debates for the three-on-one ABC News affair and incumbent President Joe Biden’s lame duck-triggering CNN debacle. Now, as the supplanting Democratic Party nominee sought to have her way, Trump asserted, “She’s had her chance…”

Addressing a crowd of supporters during a campaign stop in Wilmington, North Carolina Saturday, Trump stated, “The problem with another debate is that it’s just too late. Voting has already started. She’s had her chance to do it with Fox. You know, Fox invited us on, and I waited and waited, and they turned it down. They turned it down. But now she wants to do a debate right before the election with CNN because she’s losing badly.”

While Harris had declined a Sept. 4 invitation for a Fox News debate and her campaign had put the ABC News debate in doubt with challenges to the rules, the GOP leader said at the rally, “I’ve already done two. One with Crooked Joe Biden and CNN and the other one with Kamala on ABC. CNN was very fair I thought. Joe was driven out of the race — it was a coup by the way — but, he was driven out of the race. And they’ve been widely criticized by the radical left lunatics for all of the fairness. They were very fair.”

“In other words, they won’t be fair again, because they took a lot of abuse from the radical left,” the president contended before adding, “ABC was three-on-one, but I was given credit for having done a very, very good job. I appreciate that.”

Earlier on Saturday, Harris’ personal X account had reacted to a post from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about accepting an invitation to debate less than two weeks before Election Day.

“I will gladly accept a second presidential debate on October 23. I hope @realDonaldTrump will join me,” read the post that prompted pollster Frank Luntz to ask, “Why didn’t she just accept the Fox News proposed debate this month?”

Despite Trump reminding that only the defeated opponent seeks a rematch after losing a bout, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon memory holed the Trump-Biden debate as she argued in a statement reported by The Hill, “The American people deserve another opportunity to see Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate before they cast their ballots.”

“It would be unprecedented in modern history for there to just be one general election debate. Debates offer a unique chance for voters to see the candidates side by side and take stock of their competing visions for America,” she added.

For his part, Trump landed another shot on the David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated contest as he wrote on Truth Social Saturday night, “Wow! Just announced that ABC television ratings plummeted after David Muir’s disastrous debate performance. As accurately stated in the New York Post, ‘ABC debate disaster already punishing ratings, because America is sick of Journalists lies.'”

Kevin Haggerty
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