Donald Trump reiterated this evening that he will not do another presidential debate with Kamala Harris, after CNN set a Thursday deadline for their proposed event and Fox News offered the candidates two other options.
“It is very late in the process, voting has already begun — there will be no rematch!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
Last month, his rival Kamala Harris accepted a CNN proposal for an Oct. 23 debate, but he declined, saying the date was too late in the process. The network set a deadline of Thursday for a formal response from the campaigns.
Earlier today, Fox News sent both campaigns letters proposing a debate in Pennsylvania on either October 24 or October 27, with Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier as co-moderators.
But based on his most recent comments, Trump’s position is no more debates no matter what the network.
In the last cycle, the final presidential debate between Trump and Joe Biden was held on Oct. 22, which was after early voting had started in some states. But the debates then were organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which set the dates about a year in advance.
This cycle, both campaigns have bypassed the commission and instead have negotiated with individual networks. ABC News hosted the September debate between Trump and Harris. Even though the former president insisted that he won, he also attacked the network and the co-moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, for fact-checking him at points.
If there ultimately are no more debates, it will be the first time since 1980 that the two major party nominees have met for the matchup just once. Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter debated only one time that cycle, when the debates were organized by the League of Women Voters.
