Trump says 'too late' for debate after Harris pitches CNN forum

By Jennifer Epstein, Josh Wingrove and Stephanie Lai

Donald Trump said it’s “too late” to hold another debate after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said she had accepted an invitation for a face-off on CNN in October and challenged the Republican nominee to take the stage with her.

“The problem with another debate is that it’s too late,” the former president said at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday, noting that early voting has already started in some states and questioning the fairness of CNN as a moderator.

“She’s done one debate. I’ve done two,” Trump said. “The voting is cast. The voters are out there.”

Harris’ campaign earlier Saturday said it had agreed to participate in a debate on CNN for Oct. 23, less than two weeks before Election Day, saying voters “deserve another opportunity” to hear from the candidates.

“Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate. It is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN’s moderators, rules, and ratings,” Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Trump clashed with President Joe Biden at a June debate moderated by CNN — a forum which saw the sitting president deliver a calamitous performance that led him to eventually decide to end his campaign and endorse Harris for the party nomination.

Harris and Trump took the stage for their only debate so far on Sept 10, a showdown moderated by ABC News that had originally been agreed to by the Republican presidential nominee and Biden’s campaign.

That debate saw Trump deliver an uneven performance and a CNN snap poll showed voters viewed Harris as the clear winner. Harris’ campaign immediately challenged Trump to a second televised contest and she has repeatedly said at rallies that she is eager to take the stage again.

“I’m trying to get another debate but we’ll see,” Harris said on Friday during a campaign event in Georgia.

Trump has previously said he won their showdown and didn’t need to debate again.

On Saturday, he questioned whether CNN would be a neutral moderator, saying that while they were “fair” during his debate against Biden, the network might not be so again. And he cited a past offer to debate Harris in a forum moderated by Fox News, an outlet that would be more favorable to Trump, saying the Democratic candidate “turned it down.”

Trump and allies have also assailed ABC News over its moderators, saying they were biased in favor of Harris. The moderators corrected on-air the former president’s false claims that Haitian immigrants were eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats in the town of Springfield, Ohio, and that some states allow babies to be killed after birth.

Trump and Harris’ running mates, Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are slated to hold their own debate on Oct. 1 with CBS News.