Former President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he will not participate in a third debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“There will be no third debate!” Trump declared on Truth Social that he’s already made his point in the two previous debates—one against President Joe Biden in June and the second against Harris earlier this week.
In his post, Trump compared Harris to a fighter who, after losing, immediately demands a rematch. “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I want a rematch,’” he wrote.
Trump confidently stated that he “won the Debate” and cited polls as proof.
Trump’s decision to decline another debate comes as his campaign touts gains in key states, claiming a “2-point bump” in internal polls following his debate with Harris.
The former president argued that he had sufficiently addressed key issues like illegal immigration, inflation, and the economy, slamming the Biden-Harris administration for “destroying” the country.
“Millions of criminals and mentally deranged people are pouring into the USA, totally unchecked and unvetted,” Trump said, blaming Harris and Biden for policies that he claims are “bankrupting our Middle Class.”
Following Trump’s declaration, Vice President Harris responded by calling for another debate, saying that the stakes in this election are too high for voters to miss another opportunity to compare the candidates.
“I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate because this election and what’s at stake could not be more important,” Harris said at a rally in North Carolina. Her campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, also backed the call for a second debate, stating that the American people deserve another chance to see both candidates on stage.
However, Trump dismissed the idea, stating that he’s already debated both Biden and Harris and that “every single poll” showed him as the clear winner in the matchups. He reiterated that there was no need for another debate.
Fox News has proposed a third debate to be moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, with a letter sent to both the Trump and Harris campaigns.
The network stated that it would offer a 90-minute debate with the same rules as the previous debates hosted by ABC News and CNN, where each candidate had two minutes to respond with muted microphones during the other’s turn.
Despite this, Trump remained adamant that there will be no third debate, insisting that he had already made his points in the earlier discussions.
Harris’s team had previously declined a debate on Fox News, and there were ongoing discussions about potential debates on NBC and CBS that were ultimately not confirmed by the Harris campaign.
Trump, in response, held a town hall event with Sean Hannity in Pennsylvania to connect with voters.
The first Trump-Harris debate on ABC News drew over 67 million viewers, while the earlier debate between Trump and Biden on CNN attracted 51.3 million viewers, reflecting the high stakes of the 2024 election.
As the debate season winds down, Trump has shifted his focus back to the campaign trail, reinforcing his key messages on immigration, inflation, and the economy.