Trump says there will be ‘no third debate’, claims victory over Harris in Tuesday’s showdown

Former President Trump has indicated he will not participate in a third debate this election cycle, claiming victory after Tuesday’s showdown with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris’ campaign said Tuesday after the debate that it would be interested in running for a second. But Trump was lukewarm on the idea, and on Thursday afternoon he rejected the proposal outright.

“When a boxer loses a fight, the first words he says are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH,'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “Polls clearly show that I won the debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the radical leftist Democratic candidate, Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a second debate.”

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Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris during the debate at the National Constitution Center on September 10, 2024 in Philadelphia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump said Harris and President “Crooked Joe” Biden “have destroyed our country, with millions of criminals and mentally ill people pouring into the United States, totally unchecked and uncontrolled, and with inflation that is bankrupting our middle class.”

“Everybody knows this, and all the other problems that Kamala and Joe have caused. It was discussed extensively in the first debate with Joe and the second debate with Comrade Harris,” Trump said.

Trump participated in a Fox News rally on September 4, after Fox News invited the former president and Harris to debate.

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“She was absent from the Fox Debate and refused to do NBC & CBS,” Trump continued. “Kamala should be focused on what she should have been doing for the last almost four years.”

He added: “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

Former President Donald Trump said he will not participate in a third debate this election cycle, claiming victory after Tuesday’s showdown with Vice President Kamala Harris. He debated President Biden in June when he was the presumptive Democratic nominee. (Win McNamee)

Harris said Thursday afternoon at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, that she believes “we owe it to the voters to have another debate.”

Biden’s disastrous performance in the June debate against Trump immediately raised questions about his physical and mental capabilities to serve another four years in the White House, while calls within his own party for a second term for the 81-year-old president grew louder.

Under mounting pressure from fellow Democrats, Biden ended his re-election campaign in a bang on July 21, endorsing Harris. She faced no opposition and quickly secured the nomination.

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Vice President Kamala Harris during the debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump and Harris engaged in a heated debate Tuesday night, taking on abortion, immigration, Israel, the economy and a host of other topics. But Trump also faced the ABC News hosts, who immediately challenged and “fact-checked” the 45th president while leaving Harris’ distortions untouched.

Shortly after it ended, Trump told Fox News Digital that he thought it was his “best debate ever, especially since it was three to one.” A CNN flash poll afterward found that a majority of viewers thought Harris won the debate. A Fox News Digital focus group also gave Harris the win, though the Democrat has faced criticism for remaining evasive on key issues.

Immediately following Tuesday’s ABC debate, FOX News Media executives sent a letter to the Harris and Trump campaigns offering to host another debate, with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as moderators.

Brian Flood and Paul Steinhauser of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

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