Trump signals there will be no more debates

​Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., October 10, 2024.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., October 10, 2024.
REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

“THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH!”posted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Truth Social on Thursday. Fox News, a conservative-friendly cable TV network, had offered to hostanother presidential debate in the days before the election, but Trump has made clear it’s not going to happen.

Though Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent, will continue to challenge him by suggesting he’s afraid of her, Trump insists he doesn’t care and has debated enough this year. It may be a smart move on his part. He easily won the Republican Party’s presidential nomination without debating any of his rivals, and the latest polling (seehere andhere) suggests his fortunes in the crucial swing states may be improving.

Given the perception that Harris won their previous debate (seehere andhere), Trump may be calculating that the risk of a rematch is not worth the reward. That would also be consistent with Trump’s decision not to sit for an interview with the news program “60 Minutes.”

For now, Trump seems to have settled on a simple closing argument — that she will be just like Biden — based on another Harris interview. When asked on “The View” what she’d have done differently than Biden over the course of his presidency, she firstsaid, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

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