CNN
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Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will not participate in another presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump posted on Truth Social, referring to his first confrontation with President Joe Biden in June and his second with Harris on Tuesday.
Harris’ campaign had called for another debate after the vice president and Trump faced off at the ABC presidential debate in Philadelphia. Harris reiterated that call at a rally in Charlotte on Thursday, saying, “I think we owe it to the voters to have another debate because this election and what’s at stake couldn’t be more important.”
But Trump appeared to put an end to speculation on Thursday about whether there would be another debate, saying Harris “SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEARS.”
The Harris team said it did not take Trump’s announcement that there would be no further presidential debate at face value.
“He changes his position every day,” said a senior Harris adviser. “I expect there will be another one.”
After the debate in Philadelphia, Trump defended his performance to reporters, claiming that the ABC moderators were “very unfair” and that it seemed “three against one” during the debate. The next day, Trump said on Fox News that he did not know if he wanted to participate in another debate, continuing to claim that he “won.”
“In the world of boxing or the UFC, when a fighter gets defeated or knocked out, they stand up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, a debate is no different. She took a big beating last night. All the polls predict us to WIN,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
As of Thursday morning, all major academic polls on the debate had concluded that Harris had won, according to a CNN fact check. That included a CNN/SSRS snap poll of registered voters who watched Tuesday’s debate, which largely agreed that Harris did better than Trump.
Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Trump after suspending his own candidacy, said on Fox News that while Trump won the debate on “substance,” Harris won “clearly on her presentation, her elegance, her organization and her preparation.”
Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Trump and Harris’ running mates, are scheduled to face off in a debate hosted by CBS on October 1.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s MJ Lee, Kaanita Iyer, Stephen Collinson and Daniel Dale contributed to this story.
