US presidential elections 2024: Donald Trump says he will not debate Kamala Harris again

Former President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would not participate in another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris before the November 5 election, dismissing her call for a rematch as a sign of defeat.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump asserted that Harris’s request for another debate indicated she had lost their debate on Tuesday and was seeking a second chance to recover.

“Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” Trump wrote. He added, “There will be no third debate,” referring to his previous encounters — the first against President Joe Biden in June, followed by Tuesday’s debate with Kamala Harris.

While Trump cited unnamed polls suggesting his victory, surveys conducted by mainstream media outlets tell a different story. A CNN poll found that 63% of debate viewers believed Harris won, compared to 37% who sided with Trump. Similarly, a YouGov poll indicated that 43% of respondents thought Harris had outperformed Trump, with 28% favouring the former president and 30% remaining undecided.

The Harris campaign seized on what it described as post-debate momentum, claiming it had raised USD 47 million within 24 hours after the Tuesday debate — the strongest fundraising performance since Harris announced her candidacy.

Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is set to debate Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, on October 1 in New York.