Trump Rejects Fox News’ Proposal of 2nd Debate With Harris

People watch the presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, at a watch party at the Slate bar and lounge in New York City on Sept. 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump has declined Fox News’s final proposal of a debate between him and Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Oct. 9, Fox News’ Martha MacCallum announced that the network had contacted the campaigns of both major U.S. presidential candidates about possibly debating on Oct. 24 or Oct. 27 in Pennsylvania, saying the network was making its “final pitch” to the candidates.

She said Fox was “offering a chance for them to make their closing argument.”

MacCallum said the network believed that a second debate between Harris and Trump would serve as “a great opportunity to give the people one more chance to see them both onstage, and to make up their minds.”

But on Oct. 9, Trump said, “There will be no rematch!”

He made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform, emphasized in all capital letters.

The Republican presidential nominee further explained his rationale. He said “there is nothing to debate” because Harris appeared on ABC-TV’s “The View” and said she couldn’t think of any presidential policies or actions she would have handled differently than President Joe Biden did.

“It is very late in the process” prior to the Nov. 5 election, Trump said, noting, “voting has already begun.”

As of Oct. 9, nearly three million people have already voted in the United States, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab. 

Trump faced off against his original Democratic opponent, Biden, in a June 27 debate that CNN hosted in Atlanta.

Biden, under fire for his debate performance, dropped out of the presidential race less than a month later and endorsed Harris. Shortly thereafter, she became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Trump and Harris debated on ABC News in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 10. Her campaign immediately proposed another debate. “The first thing a prizefighter does when he loses a fight is say that he ‘demands a rematch,’” Trump said.

The former president’s calendar was already filled on one of the proposed Fox dates.  Trump booked New York’s historic Madison Square Garden for a rally on Oct. 27.

Earlier this month, Trump had rejected a CNN-proposed date, Oct. 23, although Harris had accepted it.

Instead, Trump is scheduled for that date as the featured speaker for a “Georgia for Trump Rally” organized by Turning Point Action and Turning Point Political Action Committee. The event will be held in Duluth, Georgia.

Likewise, the running mates for Trump and Harris will end the election cycle with only one debate. Last week, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) debated the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

That debate drew 43 million TV viewers, making it the highest-rated vice-presidential debate since 2008.