CNN shifts gears, offers Trump, Harris a town hall event

CNN is now offering to host a live town hall-style event with audience members after the deadline passed for both the Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns to accept an invitation for another debate.

CNN had given the camps two suggested dates in October 2024 to take place in a studio, without an audience, in Atlanta. Harris’ team had accepted the invitation, but Trump did not respond before the noon deadline Oct. 10, 2024.

In an apparent attempt to switch genres, as it were, CNN has now suggested an Oct. 23, 2024, town hall in Pennsylvania. In its proposal, the network would stock the room with “persuadable and undecided voters” from the state and allow the voters to post questions of the candidates.

“We continue to believe the American people would benefit from hearing more from the two major candidates for president of the United States and so CNN has extended invitations to both Vice President Harris and (Trump’s) campaigns to participate in separate CNN Town Halls on Oct. 23,” read the network’s statement.

Town hall-style debates have been included in past election cycles.

While Harris seems relatively open to another debate, Trump appears to have switched gears and is veering clear of any further face-to-face matchups with Harris.

“THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH,” he wrote on his conservative social media platform Truth Social earlier in the week.

Trump has also indicated it is too late in the election cycle to hold another debate, even though debates have been held this late in the game in past years.

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There is also still an invitation to an Oct. 24, 2024, or Oct. 27, 2024, debate on Fox’s conservative commentary network. Neither candidate has accepted that invite as of this writing, and Harris had indicated previously that she would not appear on a debate hosted by Fox.

Trump had said he would like to participate in a Fox-hosted debate. At one time he also said he was open to one hosted by NBC News. 

Trump continues to maintain that he “won” the debate against Harris as well as the June 27, 2024, debate against then-candidate President Joe Biden, whose poor performance that evening eventually led to his dropping out of the campaign and turning the reins over to Harris.

Numerous commentators and analysts from both sides of the political spectrum have acknowledged that Trump outperformed Biden but that he was much less effective when paired against Harris.

The Harris campaign presumably sees going up against Trump again as a potential boost for its campaign and has been pressing the issue on social media and other messaging. Many analysts agree that Trump is likely to avoid another matchup against Harris.