Trump rejects Harris challenge for 2nd US presidential debate ahead of November 5 election

Donald Trump on Saturday declined another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the US presidential election, hours after the Democratic candidate’s campaign said he had agreed to a meeting on October 23 with his Republican rival on CNN.

“Vice-President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share the stage with Donald Trump, and has accepted CNN’s invitation to the debate on October 23. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, chairman of the Harris campaign, said in a statement. .

Trump stuck to his previous position that there would be no further debate before voters go to the polls on November 5.

“The problem with another debate is that it’s too late. The voting has already begun,” the former US president told supporters in Wilmington, NC.

Harris and Trump debated for the first time on September 10, in a contest where the polls showed him winning.

Trump interviewed President Joe Biden in June.

Biden’s shaky performance in that debate has rattled Democrats and prompted strategists to question whether their party should take the unprecedented step of running the 81-year-old president into office.

Biden withdrew from the race for the White House in July.