With the conclusion of the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, eyes have already turned to when \u2014 or whether \u2014 subsequent debates between the two candidates might take place.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s campaign has signaled that it wants a second debate, in October \u2014 while Trump is wavering.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder 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,\u201d Harris campaign chair Jen O\u2019Malley Dillon said in a statement after Tuesday night\u2019s debate hosted by ABC News. \u201cThat\u2019s 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?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the spin room in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Trump repeatedly told reporters that Harris would likely want a redo because he claimed she performed poorly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll look at it, but they want a second debate because they lost,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
By Wednesday morning, however, Trump told the hosts of \u201cFox & Friends\u201d that he was leaning against debating Harris a second time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you win the debate, I don\u2019t know that I want to do another debate,\u201d Trump said, prompting host Steve Doocy to observe, \u201cIt sounds like you\u2019re a no.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I\u2019d be less inclined to,\u201d Trump said, again claiming he had a \u201cgreat night\u201d \u2014 though many Republicans felt he allowed Harris to stay on the attack.<\/p>\n
Doocy said Fox News proposed several more debate dates in October to the Trump and Harris teams Tuesday night, moderated by the network\u2019s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.<\/p>\n
Trump interrupted to say he\u2019d rather not have Baier and MacCallum and would prefer someone like \u201cSean, Jesse or Laura\u201d \u2014 apparently referencing Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think Martha and Brett were good last night \u2026 Jesse was fantastic last night, what he said,\u201d Trump said. \u201cJesse really got it. Jesse said Trump won that debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 1988, presidential candidates traditionally participated in three debates before Election Day, including one that was conducted in the style of a town hall, all organized by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. There were only two in 2020, with one canceled after Trump was diagnosed with covid-19 and declined to appear remotely rather than in person with Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the Republican National Committee withdrew from the nonprofit commission, accusing it of being biased in favor of Democrats, leaving campaign teams to negotiate debate dates and terms directly with television networks.<\/p>\n
Trump previously called for three debates with Harris, though none but the ABC News one was solidified \u2014 and only after extensive back-and-forth over rules, including whether each candidate\u2019s microphone would be muted while the other was speaking. On CNN on Wednesday morning, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not commit to a second debate, saying she would \u201clet [Trump] make an announcement on that front.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only other firmly scheduled debate is one between the vice-presidential nominees, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), that will be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Walz praised Harris\u2019s debate performance and said that, though he couldn\u2019t speak for Harris, he \u201cwould be there encouraging her to [debate Trump] every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same old tired agenda that he brings every time, and she\u2019s bringing this new hopefulness, this ability to be able to articulate what Americans are asking for. \u2026 We agreed to these two debates. We will carry them out. We\u2019ll see where it goes,\u201d Walz said.<\/p>\n
In the spin room Tuesday night, Trump surrogates also were encouraging the former president to participate in another debate against Harris. Both Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) praised Trump\u2019s performance, while acknowledging some skill on Harris\u2019s part.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we learned tonight is that Kamala Harris is actually probably pretty good at needling people,\u201d Donalds said, referring to several moments in which Harris appeared to get under Trump\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said that she thought Tuesday night\u2019s debate was \u201cabsolutely necessary\u201d and acknowledged that typically candidates have three such meetings leading up to the general election.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump would certainly be willing to do another,\u201d Lara Trump, the former president\u2019s daughter-in-law, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Biden, when he was leading the Democratic ticket, proposed a June debate on CNN as well as Tuesday\u2019s debate on ABC, and Trump quickly agreed. But after a disastrous June debate performance resulted in Harris taking over Biden\u2019s campaign, Trump initially indicated that the debate planned for Tuesday on ABC had been \u201cterminated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see her on September 4th or, I won\u2019t see her at all,\u201d he posted on social media on Aug. 3.<\/p>\n
Nine days later, he proposed three debates, on Sept. 4, Sept. 10 and Sept. 25. Harris responded by saying she would talk about future debates only after Trump and her met on Sept. 10. Trump opted to do a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Sept. 4 instead, and agreed to Tuesday\u2019s debate.<\/p>\n
Hannah Knowles, Michael Scherer, Maeve Reston, Mariana Alfaro and Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
With the conclusion of the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, eyes have already turned to when \u2014 or whether \u2014 subsequent debates between the two candidates might take place. Harris\u2019s campaign has signaled that it wants a second debate, in October \u2014 while Trump is wavering. \u201cUnder the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}