The Debate Over Debates Is Over, at Least for Now

Donald Trump’s rejection of a second meeting with Kamala Harris may or may not be final. But it could complicate his effort to portray her as ducking tough questions.

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Former President Donald Trump ruled out participating in another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday.

Kamala Harris was planning to challenge Donald J. Trump to another debate no matter what happened on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. A statement from her campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, had been drafted in advance. And after a brief huddle, her advisers hit send on it within minutes of the debate’s ending.

“That was fun,” Brian Fallon, one of her top communications advisers, who was in a holding room at the National Constitution Center, quickly wrote on X. “Let’s do it again in October.”

But for now, at least, the vice president’s hopes for a second televised confrontation with Mr. Trump have been dashed. The former president ruled out participating in another debate on Thursday.

“We’ve done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate,” Mr. Trump said in Tucson, Ariz., after two days of public vacillations, referring to his debate with President Biden in June and with Ms. Harris on Tuesday.

The stance is a far cry from his bravado this spring when Mr. Trump was set to run against Mr. Biden. Then, he promised to debate “anybody, anytime, anyplace” and offered donors T-shirts with a photoshopped image of a shirtless Mr. Trump wearing boxing gloves.

It’s also an inversion of the usual dynamics in which the candidate who struggled onstage, or is behind in the polls, demands a rematch. Ms. Harris was widely viewed as putting Mr. Trump on the defensive throughout their clash, baiting him with talk about people leaving his rallies and the inheritance he received from his father.

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