Harris ready for rematch as Trump decries rigged debate

As snap poll suggests the Democrat was the winner on Tuesday, her Republican rival refuses to commit to a rematch in October and attacks the moderators as biased.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shake on it at ground zero as Joe Biden and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg look on. Picture: AFP

Kamala Harris said she would welcome a second debate against Donald Trump as the former president railed against a contest he claimed was rigged.

Having never met before the debate, hosted by ABC News, the rivals for the White House shook hands again during commemorations in New York on Wednesday (Thursday) to mark the events of September 11, 2001, less than 12 hours after leaving the stage in Philadelphia.

With election day less than eight weeks away, the opponents are yet to agree to any further head-to-head contests, but a buoyant Harris camp said they would welcome another televised meeting.

“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,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, chairwoman of the Harris campaign, said.

“That’s what they saw tonight (Wednesday) and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice-President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Don­ald Trump?”

The former president appeared to scotch the idea in an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday, in which he said he won the debate but claimed he had received unfavourable treatment from the ABC moderators, Linsey Davis and David Muir.

Mr Trump said he was “less inclined to” debate with Ms Harris, 59, a second time “because we had a great night”. He added: “It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her.

“They lost very badly, the first thing they did is ask for a debate,” Mr Trump, 78, said. “They always ask for a rematch.”

Several polls after the debate indicated Ms Harris was the clear winner. She suffered only glancing blows on issues on which she is perceived to be weak, such as illegal immigration and the economy, while getting her message out that Mr Trump was ultimately responsible for an end to universal abortion rights – something he said was popular.

A snap poll for CNN, which is generally more supportive of Ms Harris, showed that the Vice-President was the winner. Almost two-thirds of a focus group said she had performed better. Before the debate, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would perform more strongly.

The vast majority of watchers said the contest would not affect their vote, however. And perceptions of the two candidates remain largely unchanged. Views of Mr Trump did not shift meaningfully before and after the debate, while Ms Harris received a slight bump in the share of people who view her favourably after the contest.

The poll also found Ms Harris left the stage with higher trust in her abilities on abortion and protecting democracy, while Mr Trump maintained advantage on the economy and immigration.

Mr Trump returned to the two issues repeatedly, suggesting Ms Harris had failed in her role as the key official on border security and blaming her for soaring inflation in the first half of Joe Biden’s four-year presidency. After the contest, however, his ire focused on ABC News. “I thought it was terrible from the standpoint of ABC,” he told Fox News. “They are the most dishonest, in my opinion, the most dishonest news organisation.”

He added that ABC “lost a lot of credibility”, “took a big hit” and “should be embarrassed” because the moderators fact-checked several of his answers, while, he suggested, giving Ms Harris an easier time. It is true that they did not press her when she dodged some questions, including whether she had met President Vladimir Putin. But Mr Trump would not be drawn on whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia.

Promising that she would build an “opportunity economy” that would benefit the working and middle classes, in contrast to Mr Trump’s plan that would deliver tax cuts for the wealthy, Ms Harris said her proposals had been backed by the Wharton School of Finance, Trump’s alma mater.

“Look, I went to the Wharton School of Finance and many of those professors, the top professors, think my plan is a brilliant plan, it’s a great plan,” he said. “It’s a plan that’s going to bring up our worth, our value as a country.”

Mr Trump said the wars in Ukraine and Gaza would not have started had he won the election in 2020, a ballot he again said was stolen by the Democrats.

Ms Harris responded by saying had Mr Trump been in the White House on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Putin would now be in Kyiv eyeing other eastern European countries.

THE TIMES