Trump wavers on whether he wants a second debate with Harris

With the conclusion of the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, eyes have already turned to when — or whether — subsequent debates between the two candidates might take place.

Harris’s campaign has signaled that it wants a second debate, in October — while Trump is wavering.

“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement after Tuesday night’s debate hosted by ABC News. “That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

In the spin room in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Trump repeatedly told reporters that Harris would likely want a redo because he claimed she performed poorly.

“We’ll look at it, but they want a second debate because they lost,” Trump said.

By Wednesday morning, however, Trump told the hosts of “Fox & Friends” that he was leaning against debating Harris a second time.

“When you win the debate, I don’t know that I want to do another debate,” Trump said, prompting host Steve Doocy to observe, “It sounds like you’re a no.”

“Well I’d be less inclined to,” Trump said, again claiming he had a “great night” — though many Republicans felt he allowed Harris to stay on the attack.

Doocy said Fox News proposed several more debate dates in October to the Trump and Harris teams Tuesday night, moderated by the network’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

Trump interrupted to say he’d rather not have Baier and MacCallum and would prefer someone like “Sean, Jesse or Laura” — apparently referencing Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham.

“I didn’t think Martha and Brett were good last night … Jesse was fantastic last night, what he said,” Trump said. “Jesse really got it. Jesse said Trump won that debate.”

Since 1988, presidential candidates traditionally participated in three debates before Election Day, including one that was conducted in the style of a town hall, all organized by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. There were only two in 2020, with one canceled after Trump was diagnosed with covid-19 and declined to appear remotely rather than in person with Joe Biden.

In 2022, the Republican National Committee withdrew from the nonprofit commission, accusing it of being biased in favor of Democrats, leaving campaign teams to negotiate debate dates and terms directly with television networks.

Trump previously called for three debates with Harris, though none but the ABC News one was solidified — and only after extensive back-and-forth over rules, including whether each candidate’s microphone would be muted while the other was speaking. On CNN on Wednesday morning, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not commit to a second debate, saying she would “let [Trump] make an announcement on that front.”

The only other firmly scheduled debate is one between the vice-presidential nominees, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), that will be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

On Tuesday, Walz praised Harris’s debate performance and said that, though he couldn’t speak for Harris, he “would be there encouraging her to [debate Trump] every day.”

“It’s the same old tired agenda that he brings every time, and she’s bringing this new hopefulness, this ability to be able to articulate what Americans are asking for. … We agreed to these two debates. We will carry them out. We’ll see where it goes,” Walz said.

In the spin room Tuesday night, Trump surrogates also were encouraging the former president to participate in another debate against Harris. Both Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) praised Trump’s performance, while acknowledging some skill on Harris’s part.

“What we learned tonight is that Kamala Harris is actually probably pretty good at needling people,” Donalds said, referring to several moments in which Harris appeared to get under Trump’s skin.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said that she thought Tuesday night’s debate was “absolutely necessary” and acknowledged that typically candidates have three such meetings leading up to the general election.

“Donald Trump would certainly be willing to do another,” Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, said Tuesday.

Biden, when he was leading the Democratic ticket, proposed a June debate on CNN as well as Tuesday’s debate on ABC, and Trump quickly agreed. But after a disastrous June debate performance resulted in Harris taking over Biden’s campaign, Trump initially indicated that the debate planned for Tuesday on ABC had been “terminated.”

“I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” he posted on social media on Aug. 3.

Nine days later, he proposed three debates, on Sept. 4, Sept. 10 and Sept. 25. Harris responded by saying she would talk about future debates only after Trump and her met on Sept. 10. Trump opted to do a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Sept. 4 instead, and agreed to Tuesday’s debate.

Hannah Knowles, Michael Scherer, Maeve Reston, Mariana Alfaro and Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.