Trump suggests he won’t debate Harris again, attacks ABC over moderators’ fact-checking

New York (CNN) — The morning after Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump’s first presidential debate, it is far from clear if Trump will agree to a rematch.

Multiple TV networks are eager to host a presidential debate in October. The Harris campaign, exuding confidence after Harris baited Trump on a Philadelphia stage Tuesday night, immediately said she would agree to a second debate with the ex-president. But Trump is not committing, and his overnight comments suggest he is not serious about a sequel.

“When you win the debate, I don’t, I don’t know that I want to do another debate,” Trump said in a phone interview Wednesday morning on Fox News.

Speaking with the hosts of “Fox & Friends,” Trump insulted Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the two anchors that Fox has pitched as potential debate moderators in October.

“I wouldn’t want to have Bret and Martha,” he said, before proposing Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters or Laura Ingraham instead.

It is self-evident that Fox’s prime time stars, who exist more in the realm of entertainment than news, are never going to moderate a general election debate. So if that’s the starting point for negotiations, don’t expect another debate.

But Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said on “CNN This Morning” that Trump “has already said that he is going to do three debates.” Miller blamed Harris for dodging Trump’s talk of a September 25 debate hosted by NBC.

Later in the day, Trump was asked by reporters about a possible rematch with Harris.

“I just don’t know,” he said. “We’ll think about it.”

The former president added that he would theoretically show up for a debate hosted by NBC or Fox, but first “we have to determine whether we want to do it” at all.

The Harris campaign, however, wants the vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance to happen next. CBS is hosting that face-off on October 1. That’s why Harris spokesman Brian Fallon said last night, “That was fun. Let’s do it again in October.”

NBC and other networks stand ready to host a Harris-Trump rematch in October.

Trump on Wednesday also assailed ABC after the debate moderators fact-checked the former president in real-time during the prime time telecast.

“CNN was much more honorable” during its June debate, Trump told “Fox & Friends,” calling Disney-owned ABC “the most dishonest news organization, and that’s saying a lot.”

Trump repeatedly claimed the debate “was three on one” and suggested Disney’s FCC broadcast licenses should be revoked due to the moderators’ conduct.

“They are a news organization – they have to be licensed to do it – they ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” he said.

Trump also claimed that overnight polls showed he had defeated Harris soundly in the debate, as if to suggest that a second face-off wasn’t necessary, but he was referring to highly partisan and unscientific surveys on social media. In CNN’s actual flash poll of debate watchers, Harris clearly outperformed Trump.

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