Unlike his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, Republican candidate Donald Trump today shows no interest in a second debate with the US vice-president, who is seen as the winner of the recent head-to-head.
Local media noted that Trump often fell into the traps set by his opponent in Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia and engaged in disqualifications, lies and absurdities. Some Republicans also felt he was ill-prepared.
At least 67.1 million viewers watched the presidential debate between Harris and Trump, which was hosted by ABC and simulcast by 17 networks.
The clash between the two candidates became one of the most watched political events of the year and according to statistics surpassed the 27 June debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, which drew 51.3 million viewers to television screens.
However, it fell short of the historic figures for previous debates achieved in the first between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016 (84 million) and Trump’s 2020 debate with Biden, which was watched by 73.1 million viewers.
Interestingly, more than 6.4 million people in the 18-34 age bracket and 16.8 million in the 35-54 range followed the debate, according to the Nielsen audience measurement company.
The tracker revealed that most of that total audience, some 41.3 million people, were over 55 years old.
For their part, national polls the day before had Harris winning the debate, perhaps the only one between now and the November 5 election.
A compilation of three national polls by the website 538 found that the Vice President came out on top. On average, 57 percent of viewers said Harris performed better and only 34 percent said the same of Trump.
A YouGov poll also gave Harris higher marks. Forty-three percent of respondents assumed the Democrat outperformed the Republican (28 percent) with 43 percent.
«She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin. Overall, it’s disappointing that he (Trump) isn’t more composed like he was in the first debate,» one Republican House member told The Hill.
In 2008 and 2020, the perception that candidates Barack Obama and incumbent Joe Biden, respectively, had won all the debates and also emerged victorious in the election.
After the debate, the former governor claimed he won and criticised ABC because «it was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be,» he told Fox & Friends yesterday.
And while Harris said she would be ready for a second match-up, Trump hinted that there will not be another one, after he himself initially suggested several showdowns.
