Washington: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday said he would not participate in any more debates with Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the November 5 election, as several polls showed that his Democratic rival won the September 10 debate. While Trump claimed victory in the debate, several observers said he fell for Harris' baits and appeared defensive, unprepared, and obsessed with the past.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, calling her the Democrats’ “Radical Left Candidate”. Trump had participated in a debate against President Joe Biden in June before his debate against Harris on Tuesday. “She and Crooked Joe have destroyed our Country, with millions of criminals and mentally deranged people pouring into the USA, totally unchecked and unvetted, and with Inflation bankrupting our Middle Class,” he said in the post.
“Everyone knows this, and all of the other problems caused by Kamala and Joe - It was discussed in great detail during the First Debate with Joe, and the Second Debate with Comrade Harris. She was a no-show at the Fox Debate, and refused to do NBC & CBS. KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD,” Trump further said.
Harris leading over Trump
Kamala Harris is leading Trump 47 per cent to 42 per cent in the race to win the US presidential election after a strong performance in the 90-minute debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Among voters who said they had heard at least something about Tuesday's debate, 53 per cent said Harris won and 24 per cent said Trump won, with the rest saying neither had or not answering.
Some 52 per cent of those familiar with the debate said Trump stumbled and didn't appear sharp, while 21 per cent said that of Harris. Among Republican voters, one in five said Trump didn't appear sharp. Some 52 per cent of voters familiar with the debate said Harris "gave the impression of having higher moral integrity," compared to 29 per cent who said the same of Trump.
Many Republicans were also not convinced about their candidate's performance in the debate in Philadelphia. Some 53 per cent of Republican voters in the poll said Trump won the debate, compared to 91 per cent of Democrats who said she was the victor. Among Republicans, 31 per cent said no one won and 14 per cent said Harris got the better of Trump.
Biden's disastrous performance in that debate led to widespread calls by the 81-year-old leader's fellow Democrats for him to drop his re-election bid, which he did in July. Now Trump is the older candidate in the race, and the poll found 52 per cent of voters consider Trump too old to work in government, compared to 7 per cent who said the same of Harris.
What did Republicans say on the debate?
While some Republicans including JD Vance and Marco Rubio stood by Trump's claims and criticised the ABC moderators for fact-checking the former President, some party members acknowledged that his performance was poor. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, was one of the few party leaders to publicly talk negatively about his performance.
"A missed opportunity," Graham told reporters of Trump's debate performance, adding that the former president had failed to stay focused and lost chances to tout his record. Chris Christie, a former Trump ally-turned-critic who ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Harris was "exquisitely" prepared whereas Trump was not.
“She crushed him,” a Republican battleground strategist told Politico. “He was unprepared and rambled. He fell back to the same old talking points and when she went on attack, she successfully got under his skin." However, many Republicans said that Harris did not shine either.
(with agency input)
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