Harris Challenges Trump to Debate Again as She Rallies in North Carolina

At her first big events since this week’s debate, the vice president said “we owe it to the voters” to have another. Shortly beforehand, Donald Trump had said he would not participate in one.

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Harris Challenges Trump to a Second Debate

At her first post-debate event in Charlotte, N.C., Vice President Kamala Harris challenged former President Donald J. Trump to another onstage face-off, even though he declared earlier in the day that he would not be participating in another.

Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate. [cheering] And I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate. On Tuesday night, I talked about issues that I know matter to families across America, like bringing down the cost of living, investing in America’s small businesses, protecting reproductive freedom and keeping — [cheering] and keeping our nation safe and secure. But that’s not what we heard from Donald Trump. Instead, it was the same old show. That same tired playbook that we’ve heard for years. With no plans for how he would address the needs of the American people. And North Carolina, on top of all of this, Donald Trump intends to end the Affordable Care Act. You heard what he said in the debate. He has no plan to replace it. He said, he said “concepts of a plan.” And understand what’s at stake on that: 45 million Americans are insured through the Affordable Care Act, and he’s going to end it based on a concept. And take us back to when insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions. Well, we are not going back.

At her first post-debate campaign events, Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly challenged former President Donald J. Trump to a second onstage clash and sought to use her opponent’s erratic performance as a springboard into the race’s final stretch.

“I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate,” Ms. Harris said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C., less than an hour after Mr. Trump wrote in all capital letters on his site Truth Social that “there will be no third debate!”

Despite Ms. Harris’s sharp performance on Tuesday night — her team quickly said she would be willing to debate again — her campaign has indicated that it sees the race as virtually unchanged, and has tried to keep Democrats grounded by reminding donors and supporters that “elections are not won by debates.”

But at back-to-back rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro, Ms. Harris signaled that she would try to make some of Mr. Trump’s debate remarks echo through the rest of the campaign. And she immediately leaned into the contrast she had aimed to draw on Tuesday night.

Ms. Harris said that at the debate, she had talked about issues that mattered to American families, like bringing down the cost of living and lifting up small businesses, as well as protecting basic freedoms. Mr. Trump, she said, had reprised “the same old show.”

“Because, you know, it’s all about him, it’s not about you,” she said in her speech at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, which, according to her campaign, drew 7,500 people. “Well, folks, I said it then, I say it now. It’s time to turn the page.”

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