Trump makes U-turn at second debate with Kamala Harris – India TV

Washington: Former US President Donald Trump on Friday made an about-face on a second presidential debate with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, after previously declaring there would be “no third debate”. He said he could reconsider a second debate if he was “in the right mood”. Trump said he could hold a second debate with Harris “tomorrow” if he wanted to.

Trump left the door open, claiming he was ahead in “every single” post-debate poll, even though most of them gave Harris the lead. “I wouldn't need anything. I could do it tomorrow. I've been to two debates. The second one was all wrong,” he told Fox News on Friday.

“I did great in the debates and I think they answered everything. But maybe if I got in the right mood, I don't know,” he added, striking a different tone from a Truth Social post in which he declared the prospects of a third debate were virtually dead. “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, 'I WANT A REMATCH,'” he said in the post Thursday.

Trump rules out second debate with Harris

“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, calling her the “radical left Democratic candidate.” Trump had participated in a debate against President Joe Biden in June before debating Harris on Tuesday. “She and Crooked Joe have destroyed our country, millions of criminals and the mentally ill have poured into the U.S. completely unchecked and unchecked, and inflation has bankrupted our middle class,” he said in the post.

“Everyone knows this and all the other problems caused by Kamala and Joe – it was discussed at length during the first debate with Joe and the second debate with Comrade Harris. She did not appear at the Fox debate and refused to appear on NBC and CBS. KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEARS,” Trump continued.

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“Chicken Man”: Kamala Harris and Democrats troll Trump

After Trump refused to have a second debate with Harris, her campaign derided the Republican candidate as a “coward.” Harris' campaign manager David Plouffe mocked Trump in a post on X, saying, “Finally, we discover his totem animal. The chicken.” He added, “Let's see if the chicken man removes Hannibal Lecter from his speech tonight. If he does, it will show that he was humiliated on this point Tuesday night. If not, well, that would be great. A classic win for both sides.”

Harris, meanwhile, continued to push for a second meeting and a third debate in the presidential campaign after President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in June led him to abandon his re-election bid. “The vice president is clear that she believes there should be another debate, and we do not view this as his final word,” Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Harris, told Politico.

Kamala Harris leads in polls

Kamala Harris leads Trump 47 percent to 42 percent in the race to win the U.S. presidential election after a strong performance in Tuesday's 90-minute ABC News debate, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Among voters who said they heard at least something about Tuesday's debate, 53 percent said Harris won and 24 percent said Trump won. The rest said neither or did not answer. Several observers said he fell for Harris' bait and appeared defensive, unprepared and obsessed with the past.

Trump remains under fire for his unproven claims that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio. Some of his allies blame conspiracy theorist and far-right extremist Laura Loomer, whose recent racist comments against Kamala Harris sparked outrage in the US. Loomer, who has called the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US an “inside job”, also drew scorn from Republicans after she was reportedly part of his debate prep team and accompanied him to a 9/11 commemoration event on Wednesday.

While some Republicans, including JD Vance and Marco Rubio, supported Trump's claims and criticized ABC anchors for their fact-checking of the former president, some party members acknowledged that his performance was poor. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, was one of the few party leaders to publicly speak negatively about his performance, calling it a “missed opportunity.”

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