Trump Responds To Doing Another Debate With Harris
Since early voting has already started, former President Donald Trump has declined a second debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, which CNN was set to moderate again.
“I will gladly accept a second presidential debate on October 23,” Harris announced on the X platform, adding, “I hope @realDonaldTrump will join me.”
Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon echoed the sentiment in a statement, saying, “Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate,” according to Axios. “The format and setup are identical to the CNN debate he attended and claimed victory in June, where he praised CNN’s moderators, rules, and ratings.”
However, over the weekend, during a rally in North Carolina and in recent interviews, Trump stated that he had already participated in two debates this cycle—one against Harris and the first against President Joe Biden on CNN in late June. With early voting underway, Trump argued that a third debate was unnecessary.
The first debate between Trump and Harris was hosted by ABC, with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, who faced backlash for fact-checking Trump multiple times while not subjecting Harris to the same scrutiny. However, Muir and Davis were not always accurate in their fact-checks.
For instance, during the debate, Trump asserted that crime rates, especially those involving illegal immigrants, had risen under the Biden-Harris administration. Muir countered by saying, “As you know, the FBI reports that overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
That claim was incorrect.
The Trump campaign pointed to recent data from the Justice Department's "National Crime Victimization Survey," released after the September 10 debate. According to Just the News, the survey revealed a 37% increase in violent crime from 2020 to 2023, including a 42% rise in rape, a 63% jump in robbery, and a 61% increase in stranger violence.
“If Kamala is given another four years to enforce her weak-on-crime, defund the police, no cash bail policies, America will continue to descend into a crime-infested haven for illegal immigrants, Venezuelan gangsters, and drug dealers,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement.
She further added, “Only President Trump will restore law and order, protect our police, secure the border, deport illegal immigrants, and fully prosecute criminals. If you want safety, VOTE TRUMP.”
Following the ABC debate, Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates and former Chair of the Republican National Committee, described the moderators’ performance as "the worst I’ve seen."
In an interview on Newsmax TV’s The Record, Fahrenkopf Jr. criticized Muir and Davis, saying they "clearly overstepped" and seemed to favor Harris while being tougher on Trump.
“I was shocked by the moderators’ behavior last night,” he said. “We’ve always instructed moderators, and we’ve done 33 debates starting in 1988, that their role is to facilitate.”
“They’re not supposed to inject themselves into the debate,” he continued. “It’s not their job to correct candidates—that’s what a debate is for. It’s between the candidates, not a battle between the candidate and the moderator.”
Fahrenkopf Jr. added, “From my perspective, this was the worst performance I’ve seen from moderators. I don’t know what their intentions were, but it was clear they were more lenient with Vice President Harris and tougher on the former President.”