Trump rejects Harris’s debate challenge again on CNN

Donald Trump on Saturday rejected another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the US presidential election, hours after the Democratic nominee’s campaign announced she had agreed to face her Republican rival on October 23 on CNN.

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

Trump has maintained his previous position that there will be no other debate before voters go to the polls in the Nov. 5 election.

“The problem with any other debate is that it’s too late. The voting has already begun,” the former US president told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Harris and Trump debated each other for the first time on September 10, in a contest that polls showed she winning.

Trump discussed US President Joe Biden in June.

Biden’s shaky performance in that debate rattled Democrats and prompted strategists to question whether the party should take the unprecedented step of replacing the 81-year-old president as its nominee.

Biden dropped out of the White House race in July.