Given the sheer absurdity of her opponent’s performance, we might’ve forgiven presidential nominee Kamala Harris if she refused to debate Donald Trump again or if she simply chose to exit politics altogether.
In between bizarre mentions of debunked claims of pet eating, multiple fact-check interruptions and a caught off guard handshake, Harris was given a front row seat to her Republican rival’s fascinating (read, hysterical) debate style. Still, it appears the vice president hasn’t yet been scared off.
Taking to social media today, the Democratic candidate officially confirmed whether or not she’d like to debate Trump again, and her plan is probably sending him into a downright tizzy. “Two nights ago, Donald Trump had our first debate,” the originator of the coconut tree wrote (sorry, I’m still not over that meme). “We owe it to the voters to have another debate.”
Harris’ willingness to go toe-to-toe with Trump one more time before the November election is perhaps unsurprising, given that she is widely considered to have won the ABC-hosted event earlier this week. A second match-up would offer a potential victory lap for Harris, following up a debate that saw her successfully bait Trump into hysterics on multiple occasions and receive the official (and long-awaited) seal of approval from Taylor Swift.
According to reports, the Harris campaign would be willing to debate Trump again sometime in October. Of course, Trump himself is far less keen on returning to the debate stage, mustering the same energy I have when I lose what was supposed to be a fun game of Monopoly.
Despite consistently claiming that he won the debate — touting highly partisan and unscientific social media surveys — Trump officially declared “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”. He delivered that message in a post on Truth Social, saying that Harris’ eagerness for a sequel is like when “a prizefighter loses a fight [and] the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH.’” Or, it’s like when a prizefighter wins and can’t resist the thought of a second walloping.
Trump’s post follows previous comments in which he seemed indecisive about whether to debate Harris again. He was previously keen on a debate hosted by Fox News, but later said he’d only commit to that if Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, or Laura Ingraham were the moderators. According to CNN, multiple networks are on standby ready to host another debate, including NBC, but Trump’s anger towards supposed network bias means he would probably only be happy if it was hosted on Elon Musk’s X.
Speaking of the ABC’s debate moderation, Trump said the network is “the most dishonest news organization, and that’s saying a lot.” He also called for the network’s broadcast license to be revoked “ for the way they did that,” a similar jab I leveled against that bespectacled Monopoly man when I was sent to jail for a third time.
In any case, rest assured that if a second debate does happen, I’ll be sitting in the front row for what is hopefully The Roast Of Donald Trump: The Sequel.