There will be no rematch. Donald Trump on Thursday said he would not debate Kamala Harris again after tangling with her for nearly two hours earlier this week.
As he told it in a post on Truth Social, he won the debate, and “Comrade Kamala Harris,” who immediately after the debate called for another encounter, was merely acting like a “prizefighter [who] loses a fight.”
The polls so far say something different. According to several studies cited by the analysis website FiveThirtyEight, nearly 60% of people who watched the faceoff thought Harris came out on top.
It’s unclear how much that will help Harris in either national or battleground races — the post-debate endorsement of Taylor Swift, which caused a tsunami of voter registrations, may prove to have a more lasting impact.
But whatever the effects of the debate were for either candidate, Trump has made it clear: There will not be a round 3.