‘Too late’: Donald Trump rejects Harris call for new debate

The Harris campaign earlier said she had accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in a debate on October 23.

Donald Trump campaigns in Wilmington, North Carolina. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has rejected a second debate against Kamala Harris before the November 5 election, saying it was “too late”, with early voting already under way in some states.

The Harris campaign on Saturday (Sunday AEST) said she had accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in a debate on October 23.

It would have been the candidates’ second debate, after a September 10 encounter that most pundits said she had won.

“The American people deserve another opportunity to see Vice-President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate before they cast their ballots,” her campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said. “I hope (Mr Trump) will join me,” Ms Harris posted on X.

Mr Trump claimed during a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina that he would like to debate – calling it “good entertainment value” – but the start of early voting in some states had taken the air out of the idea. “It’s just too late, voting has already started,” he said.

He added, to a large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters, that while CNN had been “very fair” when he debated President Joe Biden in June, “they won’t be fair again”.

Ms Harris replaced Mr Biden at the top of the Democrat ticket after the 81-year-old’s disastrous performance against Mr Trump.

His exit from the race left Mr Trump, 78, now the oldest ever presidential nominee, against a much younger Ms Harris, 59.

Saturday’s announcement came as some states have already begun early voting in what is an agonisingly close race. The result is expected to hinge on seven battleground states.

Mr Trump addressed the crowd in the port city of Wilmington from behind bulletproof glass, following a possible second ­assassination attempt against him. A gunman was discovered on his golf course in Florida last Sunday, with security agents foiling any plan to harm the former president.

In July, Mr Trump was struck on the ear by a bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. The US Secret Service on Friday admitted to “deficiencies” and “complacency” in the security breach.

Mr Trump won North Carolina in the 2020 election against Mr Biden but Ms Harris is aiming to flip the southeastern state for Democrats, on the strength of her support from African Americans and young voters.

The former president was facing a new challenge in North Carolina after a report on Thursday revealed that Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor whom Mr Trump has endorsed, had called himself a “Black Nazi” on a porn website message board more than a decade ago.

AFP