Published: 15:36, September 22, 2024 | Updated: 15:49, September 22, 2024
Trump rejects Harris' challenge to debate again on CNN
By Reuters
This combo picture created on Sept 10, 2024 shows US Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (right) and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participating in a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sept 10, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP) 

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump on Saturday rejected another debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris before the US presidential election, hours after the Democratic candidate's campaign said she had agreed to an Oct 23 matchup with her Republican rival on CNN.

"Vice-President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share a stage with Donald Trump, and she has accepted CNN's invitation to a debate on October 23. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate," Jen O'Malley Dillon, the chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement.

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Trump stuck to his previous position that there would not be another debate before voters go to the polls in the Nov 5 election.

People attend a watch party for the US Presidential debate between Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at The Admiral in Washington, DC, on Sept 10, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

"The problem with another debate is that it's just too late. Voting has already started," the former US president told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

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Harris and Trump debated each other for the first time on Sept 10, in a contest that polls showed she won.

Trump debated President Joe Biden in June.

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Biden's shaky performance in that debate rattled Democrats and prompted strategists to ask whether their party should take the unprecedented step of replacing the 81-year old president as their candidate. Biden withdrew from the race for the White House in July.

Timeline of key events leading to the US presidential election on Nov 5, 2024. (GRAPHIC / AFP)