Trump waffles on second debate, trashes moderators in next-day interview
Former President Trump refused to commit to a second debate and lashed out Wednesday at debate moderators in a rambling phone interview the morning after his shaky performance in the clash with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Despite previously saying he wanted as many as three debates, Trump said he might not agree to another clash with Harris, who polls said dominated Tuesday night.
“I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News.
Harris’ campaign put out a statement challenging Trump to a second debate in October within minutes of the end of the debate.
“I am not inclined to do it because I won the debate by a lot,” he addded. “But I think we let it settle in and let’s see what happens.”
The only additional debate both campaigns have agreed to so far is a Sept. 30 clash between vice presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance.
Trump derided ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis as “terrible,” saying they were too tough on him and went easy on Harris.
“They should be embarrassed. I mean, they kept correcting me,” he said. “And they refused to correct (Harris). I even complained a couple of times. Why aren’t you correcting them?”
Muir fact checked Trump when the former president repeated a false conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pet dogs and cats in an Ohio town. Davis told the millions of viewers that Trump lied when he claimed Democratic states permit the murder of babies after they are born.
Non-partisan polls said about two-thirds of debate viewers thought Harris won the pivotal first debate with Trump with a poised and confident display.
Pundits say it will take several days before opinion polls pick up any impact the debate may have on the overall state of the presidential race, which they said was nearly deadlocked before the clash.
Trump had previously proposed three debates: one on Fox, the one that took place Tuesday on ABC and a third contest to be hosted by NBC. Harris rejected the Fox debate and vowed to negotiate the terms of a second debate in October, presumably on NBC.
Trump seemed to believe any second debate would be hosted by Fox, and spent a portion of his interview attacking anchors Brett Baier and Martha McCallum, who the network said would moderate any presidential debate.
The former president said he’d be more comfortable with one of his right-wing media allies like Sean Hannity or Jesse Watters in the moderator’s seat.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to have Martha and Bret,’ Trump said. “I’d love to have somebody else.”
