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CNN
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Does Donald Trump really want his running mate JD Vance to have the final say in the debate this fall? Or does Trump want that chance for himself?

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

The only remaining scheduled debate of this presidential election season is the October 1 clash between vice presidential candidates Vance and Tim Walz.

CBS is hosting the vice presidential debate and allowing other networks to simulcast the face-off, as CNN did in June and ABC did earlier this month. The contrasts between Walz, 60, and Vance, 40, are sure to be fascinating.

Yet historically, the vice presidential debate has never been the last in an election cycle, with the vice presidential debates typically sandwiched between the front-runner debates.

Of course, this year’s election cycle was unusual for many reasons, including the earliest debate between President Joe Biden and Trump in the general election and the late announcement of Harris as the nominee.

However, it would certainly be disappointing if Walz and Vance were to lead the final debate of the cycle.

Several television networks have been trying to hold additional presidential debates in the fall. The Harris team has indicated that it would be interested, but only after the vice presidential debate.

CNN has offered to host Harris and Trump on Oct. 23 in Atlanta, the site of the Biden-Trump face-off in June. (Trump has said he won that debate, and Biden withdrew from the race three weeks later, so a return to the Atlanta studio could be tempting for him.)

On Saturday afternoon, Harris publicly announced her willingness to attend on October 23 and encouraged Trump to join her.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris campaign manager, said in a statement that “Trump should have no problem agreeing” because “it is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he participated in in June and said he won by praising CNN’s moderators, rules and ratings.”

NBC, the largest network that has not yet hosted a debate this year, was also keen to host Harris and Trump. Harris’ aides may have expected Trump to be more willing to attend a CNN event.

But the Trump team responded quickly on Saturday, reiterating the Republican’s statement that there would be no further debate and pointing to his social media post from last week that said, “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

At a rally on Saturday afternoon, Trump claimed that October 23 was “simply too late” because “the election has already begun.”

But as political scientist Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, noted on X, the people voting weeks in advance are mostly “voters who were likely undecided.” A debate just before Election Day “could sway the small percentage of undecided voters and motivate (or demotivate) many on both sides.”

The last presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle took place on October 22nd.

Nevertheless, Trump cares deeply about the ratings of his television networks, and one has to ask whether he will really miss the opportunity to reach another 60 to 80 million viewers before Election Day.

The first two presidential debates this year were undeniably valuable to the tens of millions of voters who tuned in.

Americans would benefit from another debate, CNN said in a statement on Saturday, because the public would “learn more from these candidates as they make their final decision.”