Too late, voting has already started

Wilmington:

Donald Trump on Saturday rejected a second debate against Kamala Harris before the November 5 election, saying it was “too late” because early voting had already begun in some states. Earlier on Saturday, Harris’ campaign team said she had accepted an invitation from CNN to take part in a debate on October 23. It would have been the candidates’ second debate, after a September 10 clash in which she won, according to most experts.

“The American people deserve another opportunity to watch the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump before they cast their vote,” her campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

“I hope (Trump) will join me,” Harris posted on X.

Trump said during a campaign rally in the swing state of North Carolina that he would like to take part in a debate and called it “entertaining.” But the introduction of early voting in some states has taken the wind out of the sails of this idea.

“It’s just too late, the voting has already started,” he said.

Speaking to a large and enthusiastic crowd of his supporters, he added that while CNN had been “very fair” in his debate with President Joe Biden in June, “it will not be fair again.”

Vice President Harris replaced her boss at the top of the Democratic ticket after 81-year-old Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump.

After dropping out of the race, 78-year-old Trump, now the oldest presidential candidate ever, will face a much younger Harris, 59.

Voting in progress

Saturday’s announcement came as early voting had already begun in some states in an agonizingly close race.

The outcome is expected to depend on seven swing states, including North Carolina.

Behind bulletproof glass, Trump addressed the crowd in the port city of Wilmington after what appeared to be a second assassination attempt on him.

Last Sunday, a gunman was spotted on his golf course in Florida and security forces thwarted any plan to harm the former president.

In July, Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. The US Secret Service – which is tasked with protecting the candidate – on Friday acknowledged “shortcomings” and “negligence” in the shocking security breach.

Anti-immigration rhetoric

Trump won North Carolina against Biden in the 2020 election.

But Harris wants to win the southeast of the state for the Democrats because she enjoys strong support among African-Americans and young voters.

Trump’s speech on Saturday reinforced the tough anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become a centerpiece of his campaign, as he falsely claimed that migrants were “attacking towns and cities across the Midwest.”

He also promised the crowd that the United States would “reach Mars before the end of my term.”

The former president faced a new challenge in North Carolina after a sensational report on Thursday revealed that Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial candidate endorsed by Trump, called himself a “black Nazi” and made other inflammatory remarks on a porn website’s message board more than a decade ago.

Robinson denounced the CNN report as “salacious tabloid lies.”

The presidential race remains neck and neck and every vote will count in this election. Trump has once again refused to accept the result if he loses.

Trump faces criminal charges for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 results, which led his supporters to violently storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)