The 2024 U.S. presidential election is less than two months away, with voters getting to see Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on the debate stage earlier this week.
Though past election seasons have typically featured three presidential debates, it appears Tuesday’s debate will be the only one between Harris and Trump ahead of the November election.
While the debate was the first between Harris and Trump, a presidential debate was held in late June between Trump and President Joe Biden. Biden’s performance in the debate stemmed calls within the Democratic Party for him to step aside in the race, culminating in his withdrawal from the election nearly a month later.
Trump officially rejected a second debate with Harris in a Truth Social post Thursday, claiming he won the debate earlier this week in Philadelphia.
Numerous conservative commentators and some of Trump’s own supporters have said Harris outperformed him.
But Trump in Thursday’s post wrote, “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH.'”
“Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” Trump wrote.
Though Trump and Harris are not slated to debate again before the Nov. 5 presidential election, vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance are scheduled to face off in a televised debate on Oct. 1.
The campaigns have publicly squabbled over the debate schedule since Harris took over the Democratic ticket.
Trump had previously tried to push Harris to accept an early-September debate on Fox News. He also said at one point that he was game for another debate hosted by NBC News on Sept. 25. Harris’ campaign did not immediately agree to that debate.
Trump had waffled on whether to participate in an ABC-hosted debate, claiming that his ongoing defamation lawsuit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos created a “conflict of interest.”
The campaigns also traded barbs about the debate rules, with Harris’ team unsuccessfully pushing for both candidates’ microphones to stay on even when it was not their turn to answer.
Trump and Harris ended up facing off for the first, and possibly only, time Tuesday night.
Moments after the debate ended, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon called for a second debate in October.
“Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” she said.
Trump claimed victory in the debate, and quickly cast doubt on whether he would agree to another round.
In a Truth Social post Wednesday, he wrote, “Why would I do a Rematch?”