new York
CNN
—

The morning after the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, it is far from clear whether Trump will agree to a rematch.

Several television networks are planning to host a presidential debate in October. The Harris campaign team, which was full of confidence after Harris’s provocation of Trump on a stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, immediately said it would agree to a second debate with the former president. But Trump is not willing to commit, and his comments overnight suggest that he is not serious about a sequel.

“If you win the debate, I don’t know if I want to have another debate,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox News on Wednesday morning.

Speaking to the moderators of “Fox & Friends,” Trump insulted Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the two moderators Fox had suggested as possible moderators of the October debate.

“I don’t want Bret and Martha,” he said, before suggesting Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters or Laura Ingraham instead.

It is obvious that the stars of Fox’s primetime show, who exist more in the entertainment space than the news space, will never moderate a general election debate, so if this is the starting point for negotiations, no further debate is to be expected.

But Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said on “CNN This Morning” that Trump “has already announced that he will participate in three debates.” Miller blamed Harris for dodging Trump’s announcement of a Sept. 25 debate hosted by NBC.

However, the Harris team wants the vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance to take place next. CBS is hosting this duel on October 1. Harris spokesman Brian Fallon therefore said last night: “That was fun. Let’s do it again in October.”

NBC and other networks are poised to host a rematch between Harris and Trump in October.

On Wednesday, Trump also attacked ABC after debate moderators conducted a real-time fact-check on the former president during the prime-time broadcast.

“CNN was much more honorable” during the June debate, Trump told “Fox & Friends,” calling Disney-owned ABC “the most dishonest news organization, and that’s saying something.”

Trump repeatedly claimed that the debate was a “three-on-one” debate and suggested that Disney should be stripped of its FCC broadcasting licenses because of the moderators’ behavior.

“They are a news organisation – they need a licence to do this – for the way they have done it, their licence should be revoked,” he said.