Kamala Harris agrees to another debate with Trump on October 23 – India TV

Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN to take part in another debate with her Republican rival Donald Trump on October 23, challenging her Republican rival to run against her less than two weeks before the November presidential election, her campaign said on Saturday. This came more than a month after their debate on September 10, which polls showed went in Harris’ favor.

“Vice President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share the stage with Donald Trump, and she has accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on October 23. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to that debate,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, the manager of the Harris campaign, said in a statement.

“I’m happy to accept a second presidential debate on October 23. I hope @realDonaldTrump is there,” Harris posted on X.

For the October debate, CNN has offered both campaign teams a format similar to the June debate, in which Trump and Harris would answer moderators’ questions for 90 minutes without a live audience in the studio. When asked about Harris’ acceptance of the CNN invitation, a Trump spokesman referred to the Republican ex-president’s previous statements that there would be no more debates.

Trump has had varying stances on a third debate, first posting on Truth Social, “THERE WILL NOT BE A THIRD DEBATE!” But he later did an about-face and said he might reconsider a second debate when “he’s in the right frame of mind.” Trump said he could have a second debate with Harris “tomorrow” if he wanted. “I did great in the debates and I think they answered everything. But maybe when I got in the right frame of mind, 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 effectively dead.

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 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.”

Trump had debated President Joe Biden in June before running against Harris. Biden’s shaky performance in that debate unsettled Democrats and led strategists to question whether their party should take the unprecedented step of replacing the 81-year-old president as its nominee. Biden withdrew from the White House race in July.

Harris’ entry into the race, just weeks after Biden performed poorly in a debate against Trump, led to a surge in donations to her campaign, which ended August with $235 million, slightly more than it had at the beginning of the month. The Trump campaign maxed out its balance, ending August with $135 million, about $17 million less than it had at the beginning of the month.

(with agency input)

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