Donald Trump has announced that he will not participate in a second debate against Kamala Harris ahead of the November elections.
The former president claimed on Truth Social that polls showed he “clearly won” his first debate against Harris in Philadelphia earlier this week.
Trump added that Harris should “focus” on her job as vice-president.
At a rally in North Carolina, Harris said that the candidates “owe” voters another debate.
During the tense 90-minute debate on Tuesday, Harris frequently rattled Trump with a string of personal attacks that put him on the defensive, including comments about the size of his rally crowds and his conduct during the 6 January 2021 riots at the US Capitol.
A snap CNN poll of voters watching suggested that Harris performed better. Betting markets suggested the same.
Trump and his supporters claimed that the two ABC journalists moderating the debate were unfair and biased in favour of Harris.
“When a prize fighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are ‘I want a rematch’,” Trump wrote.
“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 added.
At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina shortly after Trump’s announcement, Harris said that she and Trump “owe it to the voters to have another debate”.
“This election and what is at stake could not be more important,” she added.
It is unclear if she was aware of Trump’s announcement when she made those comments.
The Harris campaign called for a second debate immediately after Philadelphia, stating that voters “got to see the choice they will face at the ballot box: moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump”.
“Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”
Speaking after the debate, various Trump campaign surrogates – including Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz – said that they believed Trump would welcome another debate.
However Trump the next morning said on Fox News that the debate had been “rigged” and that he was “less inclined” to attend another after his “great night”.
The first debate followed weeks of back and forth over whether it would go ahead, and under what conditions.
Trump had also suggested additional debates on Fox and NBC News, although Harris only agreed to ABC on Tuesday.
In his Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said she “refused” to do the additional debates.
Statistics from media analytics firm Nielsen show that 67.1m people watched the debate, a significantly higher figure than the 51.3m who tuned into the June debate between Trump and Biden.
Polls show Harris and Trump in an extremely tight race in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday said Harris had a five-point lead over Trump nationally, while 53% of respondents said that she won Tuesday’s debate.
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