'I hope he will join me': Kamala Harris agrees to another debate on Oct 23, Trump declines

Harris and Trump debated on September 10, where the Vice President managed to dominate the former President with a stream of attacks on his fitness and legal problems. Trump had offered contrasting positions on a second debate, which was called for by the Harris campaign.

Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in another debate with her Republican rival Donald Trump on October 23 and urges her Republican rival to face her less than two weeks ahead of the November presidential election, according to her campaign on Saturday. This came over a month after their September 10 debate, which polls agreed went in Harris' favour.

"Vice President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share a stage with Donald Trump, and she has accepted CNN's invitation to a debate on October 23. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate," Jen O'Malley Dillon, the chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement.

"I will gladly accept a second presidential debate on October 23. I hope @realDonaldTrump will join me," Harris posted on X.

For the October debate, CNN has offered both campaigns a format similar to the June debate, in which Trump and Harris would field moderators' questions for 90 minutes without a live studio audience. However, Trump stuck to his previous position that there would not be another debate before voters go to the polls in the November 5 election. "The problem with another debate is that it's just too late. Voting has already started," the former US president told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Trump has taken contrasting stands on having a third debate. Initially, he posted on Truth Social, "THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!" However, he later made a U-turn, saying that he may reconsider doing a second debate if "he is in the right mood'. Trump said he could do a second debate with Harris "tomorrow" if he wishes. "I did great in the debates, and I think they've answered everything. But maybe if I got in the right mood, I don't know," he added, striking a different tone from the one he had in a Truth Social post declaring that the prospects of a third debate were effectively dead.

After Trump's refusal to do a second debate with Harris, her campaign taunted the Republican candidate as 'chicken'. Harris' campaign chairman, David Plouffe, mocked Trump in a post on X, saying, "At long last we discover his spirit animal. The Chicken." He added, "Let’s see if Chicken Man excises Hannibal Lecter out of his speech tonight. If he does, demonstrates he was humiliated on that point on Tuesday night. If he doesn’t, well, that would be awesome. Classic win, win."

Trump debated President Joe Biden in June before his matchup against Harris. Biden's shaky performance in that debate rattled Democrats and prompted strategists to ask whether their party should take the unprecedented step of replacing the 81-year-old president as their candidate. Biden withdrew from the race for the White House in July.

Harris' entry into the race, just weeks after Biden performed poorly in a debate against Trump, fueled a surge in donations to her campaign, which ended August with $235 million, just over what it had at the beginning of the month. The Trump campaign drew down on its balance, ending August with $135 million, about $17 million less than at the start of the month.

(with agency input)

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