Is Trump hoping for his VP to have the last word in this election’s final debate? | politics

New York
CNN
 — 

Does Donald Trump actually need his operating mate, JD Vance, to have the final debating word this fall? Or does Trump need that chance for himself?

That’s considered one of the questions now on the desk after Vice President Kamala Harris challenged Trump on Saturday to a second debate hosted by CNN subsequent month.

The solely remaining agreed-to debate of this presidential election season is the October 1 face-off between the vice presidential nominees, Vance and Tim Walz.

CBS is internet hosting the VP debate and permitting different networks to simulcast the matchup, simply as CNN did in June and ABC did earlier this month. The contrasts between Walz, 60, and Vance, 40, are positive to be fascinating.

But traditionally the VP debate has by no means been the last in an election cycle, with the operating mates often sandwiched in between debates between the candidates at the high of the ticket.

Of course, this 12 months’s election cycle has been uncommon for many causes, together with the earliest basic election debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, and the late ascension of Harris as the nominee.

But it positive would appear anticlimactic to have Walz and Vance helm the last debate of the cycle.

Multiple tv networks have jockeyed to maintain extra presidential debates this fall. The Harris marketing campaign signaled that it will have an interest, however solely after the VP debate.

CNN has provided to host Harris and Trump on October 23 in Atlanta, the website of the Biden-Trump matchup in June. (Trump has mentioned he gained that debate, and Biden withdrew from the race three weeks later, so a return to the Atlanta studio is likely to be attractive for him.)

On Saturday afternoon, Harris publicly agreed to take part on October 23, and inspired Trump to be a part of her.

Harris marketing campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon mentioned in an announcement that “Trump should have no problem agreeing” since “it is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN’s moderators, rules, and ratings.”

NBC, the greatest broadcast community that has but to maintain a debate this 12 months, has additionally been eager to host Harris and Trump. Harris aides might have calculated that Trump could be extra possible to agree to CNN’s occasion.

But the Trump marketing campaign rapidly responded Saturday by reiterating the Republican’s declaration that there wouldn't be one other debate, pointing to his social media submit last week that learn, “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

At a rally Saturday afternoon, Trump claimed October 23 is “just too late” as a result of “voting has already started.”

But as political scientist Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, observed on X, individuals who vote weeks early are primarily “voters who were probably unmovable.” A debate nearer to Election Day “could sway the small % of undecideds plus motivate (or de-motivate) many on both sides.”

The final presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle was held on October 22.

Still, Trump cares deeply about tv scores, so one has to marvel if he'll actually go up an opportunity to attain 60 million to 80 million viewers another time earlier than Election Day.

The first two presidential debates this 12 months have been indisputably useful to the tens of tens of millions of voters who tuned in.

Americans would profit from one other debate, CNN mentioned in an announcement on Saturday, as a result of the public would “hear more from these candidates as they make their final decision.”