WASHINGTON – Republican former president Donald Trump said on Sept 12 that he would not take part in another debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris, as the White House rivals returned to battleground states that are set to decide a nail-bitingly close US presidential election.

Trump lashed out two days after his first televised clash with the Democratic presidential candidate, when Ms Harris put Trump on the defensive and got under his skin with a series of barbs.

“There will be no third debate!” the 78-year-old wrote, in all caps, on his Truth Social platform – including in his tally the earlier debate with President Joe Biden in June that drove the incumbent out of the race and his Sept 10 showdown with Ms Harris.

Trump claimed that “polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris” – despite several snap surveys that showed Ms Harris came out well on top in the clash viewed by more than 67 million Americans.

In a rally in the key swing state of North Carolina, Ms Harris insisted that they should debate again before the Nov 5 election.

It was not clear if she was aware of Trump’s statement.

“Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate, and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another,” Ms Harris said, to cheers from supporters in the city of Charlotte.

“Because this election and what is at stake could not be more important,” added the 59-year-old, who headed to a second rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, later on Sept 12.

‘More aggressive’

Ms Harris went on to reference several Trump statements on issues, including abortion and his widely mocked assertion that he had “concepts of a plan” to reform the US healthcare system.

The Harris campaign said earlier that she was entering a “more aggressive” phase of her White House bid and was “seeking to capitalise on her decisive debate victory and build on momentum”.

Trump took the stage on Sept 12 in Tucson, Arizona, doubling down on criticism of the ABC journalists who hosted the Sept 10 debate.

He called Ms Harris a “lunatic” and claimed the two journalists, Mr David Muir and Ms Linsey Davis, were biased in her favour.

“The worst two anchors anybody’s ever seen,” he said, later accusing Ms Davis of looking at him “with hatred in her eyes”.

Trump was due to speak mainly about the country’s “struggling economy”, his campaign said, but in the more than hour-long speech, he frequently made digressions to insult Harris and repeat ugly and unfounded allegations and conspiracy theories about migrants.

Trump and Ms Harris remain neck and neck in the polls with just 54 days until the election, with the result expected to hinge on a few thousand voters in half a dozen swing states, including North Carolina and Arizona.

Ms Harris has erased Trump’s lead since Mr Biden ended his re-election bid on July 21, but insists she is the underdog in perhaps the shortest and most dramatic campaign in US political history.

The election is also further stoking political tensions in an already deeply polarised nation.

‘Filth’

The White House on Sept 12 condemned a false story about migrants eating pet cats and dogs in Ohio – which Trump pushed during the debate – as “filth”, and said it put “lives in danger”.

Trump repeated those false allegations against Haitian migrants in his Tucson speech on Sept 12.

The US government has, meanwhile, declared the formal electoral count on Jan 6, 2025, a “special security event” – amid apparent fears of a repeat of the storming of the US Capitol in 2021 by Trump supporters who refused to accept his defeat by Mr Biden.

The announcement came as Republican Alberto Gonzales, who was attorney-general under former president George W. Bush, said he backed Ms Harris because Trump’s behaviour on that day made him a threat to the rule of law.

Trump and Ms Harris, though, have their eyes firmly fixed on the battlegrounds.

Ms Harris returns to pivotal Pennsylvania on Sept 13 for campaign events in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre, before attending an awards dinner on Sept 14 with her husband Doug Emhoff.

Trump will deliver remarks in Las Vegas on Sept 13 on the cost of living, as he targets Nevada, yet another key swing state.

Ms Harris’ running mate Tim Walz will travel to Michigan and Wisconsin from Sept 12 to 14 as part of the campaign’s New Way Forward swing state tour. AFP