Donald Trump again rejects debate rematch with Kamala Harris
Donald Trump is still refusing to go head-to-head with Kamala Harris for a second time, shooting down a new invitation to debate her before November’s election.
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Donald Trump has flatly refused a new offer to debate Kamala Harris again, declaring in an all-caps social media rant that there is “nothing to debate” ahead of November’s election.
After the pair’s first head-to-head contest last month in which Ms Harris was widely considered the victor, the Vice President immediately dared the former president to another debate, but he shot down the idea.
Ms Harris has since agreed to a debate on CNN on October 23, which is expected to turn into a solo town hall appearance after Mr Trump rejected the invitation.
Fox News then moved to offer to host another contest in the days before the November 5 election, with the network saying it “would present an opportunity for each candidate to make their closing arguments”.
Mr Trump responded within hours on his social media platform with the fiery all-caps post.
“I won the last two debates, one with crooked Joe, the other with lyin’ Kamala,” he said.
“I am also leading in the polls, with the lead getting bigger by the day.”
“The first thing a prizefighter does when he loses a fight is that say that he ‘demands a rematch’. It is very late in the process, voting has already begun - there will be no rematch!”
Ms Harris has been on a media blitz this week, with the polls continuing to show a neck-and-neck race in the key battleground states.
But she came under fire after an appearance on morning talk show The View in which she was unable to nominate anything she would change about Joe Biden’s presidency.
“Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Biden, meanwhile, counter-programmed her appearances with one press conference where he said Ms Harris was involved in all his decisions, and another where he praised Ron DeSantis amid Ms Harris’ public stoush with the Florida Governor.
Her vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, meanwhile, also made forays into hostile media with combative interviews on 60 Minutes and Fox News after his debate loss against Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance.
Mr Vance now has seen a popularity rating in the positive for the first time in months after entering the race as one of the most unpopular vice presidential candidates in history.
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KAMALA’S MEDIA BLITZ ROILED BY ALLEGATIONS
Kamala Harris’ media blitz to jump-start her floundering campaign was overshadowed by new allegations against her husband Doug Emhoff of “inappropriate” behaviour.
The Second Gentleman, who has denied claims he struck an ex-girlfriend and caused the miscarriage of a nanny he had an affair with, is now facing allegations of creating a “misogynistic” work environment.
Lawyers who worked at the firm, Venable, claim Mr Emhoff – while married to Ms Harris – hired an unqualified model as a trophy secretary because she was “young, attractive and friendly with powerful men in the office”.
He also reportedly yelled, held men-only cocktail hours, took only pretty young staff to glamorous events, and revoked perks from women who didn’t flirt with him.
The bombshell allegations, made in The Daily Mail, came as Ms Harris backed up her 60 Minutes interview with appearances on The View, Howard Stern, and The Colbert Show as part of her campaign’s efforts to combat falling polls in key battleground states.
They’re the latest in a series of negative stories targeting Mr Emhoff, who has been celebrated as a “wife guy” and spokesperson against toxic masculinity.
While Mr Emhoff, through a spokesperson, denied previous allegations he struck an ex-girlfriend, he has admitted to having an affair with a nanny.
He has not commented on the most recent claims made by former colleagues from Venable Los Angeles, which Mr Emhoff headed up between 2006 to 2017.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, one former staffer said Mr Emhoff “bragged” about yelling “get the f*** out of my office” to a female partner.
“What’s worse was he bragged about it to the management at Venable and they were aghast. He’s an a**hole. He told them how he ‘put her in her place’. A misogynist, that’s who does that,” the ex-colleague said.
A woman who worked under Mr Emhoff said that he favoured “young, pretty girls” in a way that wasn’t “appropriate for the position he was in”.
“If there was an event, like the Justice Ball, he would favour certain people. Usually it was young, pretty girls. And he would prefer for them to ride with him. He would get a limo,” she said.
Another ex-staffer said it was well known that Mr Emhoff was “very flirty” and that “if you weren’t flirty back or didn’t respond positively then you were on his s**t list”.
“There were deadlines that, if you were one of his favourite people, wouldn’t apply. But if you weren’t, they would,” she said.
Another former colleague added that Mr Emhoff excluded women from men-only drinking nights in the office.
“He had, for many years cocktail parties where only men were invited. In the office, on Friday evening,” she said. “When my colleague brought that to the attention of Venable [around 2010], that stopped.”
A former legal secretary sued Venable alleging sexual discrimination in 2019, two years after Mr Emhoff had left the firm.
Mr Emhoff was not a defendant in the suit, but was referenced in the legal complaint as being known for having a glamorous, 20-something secretary who was “unqualified” for the role, according to the legal complaint.
The name of Mr Emhoff’s legal secretary, “Katya”, became a euphemism in the office for “trophy secretary”, according to the court filing by ex-Venable legal secretary Marjan Rabbi.
Katya Calderone worked at Venable from 2014 to 2017 after obtaining a paralegal certificate from UCLA and working in several other legal roles, according to her LinkedIn page.
She also worked as a part-time model for fashion brands like Manco, according to The Daily Mail’s report.
HARRIS REVEALS CHOICE OF GUN
Kamala Harris has revealed she owns a Glock pistol that she has fired at shooting ranges.
In her latest effort to appeal to conservative voters ahead of November’s election, the Vice President spoke about her gun during a prime-time appearance on 60 Minutes, a pre-election tradition that Donald Trump abandoned by backing out of the interview.
Last month, the Democratic candidate controversially told talk show legend Oprah Winfrey: “If someone breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.”
Asked about that comment, she said she had owned a Glock “for quite some time”.
When questioned over whether she had used it, the Democratic nominee laughed and added: “Of course I have. Yes, at a shooting range – of course I have.”
“My background is in law enforcement, so there you go,” Ms Harris added, referring to her background as a prosecutor in California.
The handgun is designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b. H and entered the Austrian military and police service by 1982 after becoming the top performer in reliability and safety tests. In the US, police almost exclusively carry Glock handguns and they can be easily converted into fully automatic weapons using a small device.
Her running mate Tim Walz also appeared on 60 Minutes and admitted that Ms Harris had told him to “be a little more careful on how you say things”, amid widespread criticism for exaggerating his military record and misstating details about his travels to China.
“I will own up to being a knucklehead at times,” the Minnesota Governor said.
But he argued that voters “know the difference between someone expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong, rather than a pathological liar like Donald Trump”.
Ms Harris was also grilled over the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and resist an incursion in Lebanon.
Asked if he was a close ally, she sidestepped and said that “the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people”.
“And the answer to that question is yes,” Ms Harris said.
She also hedged on whether she would welcome Ukraine as a member of NATO, despite President Joe Biden and America’s treaty partners affirming Ukraine was on an “irreversible path” to joining the alliance.
Ms Harris’s interview is part of a long-awaited media blitz this week, which also includes appearances on comedian Stephen Colbert’s late-night TV program, radio shock Howard Stern’s show, morning TV program The View, and popular podcast Call Her Daddy.
Mr Trump had agreed to participate in the 60 Minutes episode, with his spokesman Steven Cheung telling the program in a text message: “The president said yes.”
When the former president backed out, Mr Cheung claimed “nothing was ever scheduled or locked in” and that “they also insisted on doing live fact checking, which is unprecedented”.
Ms Harris told viewers to watch one of Mr Trump’s rallies instead, saying they would “hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances”.
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