Trump declines CNN invitation to 2nd debate with Harris: 'It's too late'

Vice President Kamala Harris agreed Saturday to another debate with former President Donald Trump — but Trump declined.

Harris accepted an invitation from CNN to a debate on Oct. 23 and wrote in a post on X: “I hope @realDonaldTrump will join me.” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement to CNN that “Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate.”

Speaking during a campaign rally in North Carolina on Saturday, Trump said it was "too late" to have another debate with Harris.

"The problem with another debate is that it's just too late — voting has already started," he told the crowd. "She had her chance to do it with Fox," he added, referring to Fox News's invitation earlier this month for the pair to debate in October.

Back in August, Trump agreed to three debates with Harris leading up to Election Day: one on Sept. 4, which never transpired; one that took place on Sept. 10; and one on Sept. 25, which is not scheduled to occur.

Yet after the Sept. 10 debate — which was followed by a 5-point surge by Harris over Trump among registered voters, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll — Trump seemed to change his tune about debating the former California senator again.

“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Sept. 12.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, 'I WANT A REMATCH.' Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” he wrote.

But last week, Trump suggested he might participate in another debate, telling reporters in California it would depend on “if I got in the right mood.”

Trump has only debated Harris one time so far, but a new debate would be his third during this election cycle. On June 27, he debated President Biden, who was then running for reelection. Biden’s performance in that showdown drew concern from Democrats looking to beat Trump in the general election this fall. Under pressure, Biden dropped out soon after, nominating his vice president to take his place in the race.