The former president suggested immediately after the debate and in a call-in to Fox News on Wednesday morning that he was not inclined to agree to another.
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Donald J. Trump and Kamala Harris during the debate on Tuesday night.
Immediately after Tuesday’s debate — in which Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly baited former President Donald J. Trump on abortion, the size of his rally crowds, his reputation with foreign leaders and more — Ms. Harris’s campaign said she was on board for another.
“Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate,” her campaign said on social media. “Is Donald Trump?”
Speaking to reporters in the post-debate spin room Tuesday night, and to Fox News on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump suggested that he was not inclined to agree.
“I don’t know that I want to do another debate,” he said on Fox. He claimed that Ms. Harris only wanted one because, in his accounting, she had lost Tuesday’s — though her campaign had agreed to do two debates before she took the stage.
“When two fighters fight and one loses, the first thing they do is ask for a debate. Or they ask for a fight. So in this case a debate,” Mr. Trump said. “When a fighter loses, he says: ‘I want a rematch. I want a rematch.’ Always the losing person, the fighter, the debater, they always ask for a rematch.”
During the prolonged negotiations over Tuesday’s matchup on ABC, Mr. Trump had specifically called for a debate on Fox News, at one point trying to get that substituted for the ABC debate, which he had agreed to when President Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee. But in Mr. Trump’s interview Wednesday, he indicated that he would be hesitant to do a second debate even if Fox hosted it.
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Source: nytimes.com
