(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris and Donald Trump traded jabs over their first presidential debate in their return to the campaign trail, with the candidates visiting two crucial swing states in the November election.
Yet while Harris is seeking to harness momentum from a strong debate performance and bank support from early voters, Trump sought to regain his footing after an unsteady showing, assailing the forum’s moderators as “low-lifes” and announcing that he would not take the stage against his Democratic rival again.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!,” Trump posted Thursday on his social media platform Truth Social, a decision he discussed at length during a campaign event in Tucson, Arizona.
“Because we’ve done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate,” Trump said citing his forums with President Joe Biden and then Harris. Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump led him to his exit from the Democratic ticket, with Harris replacing him.
Trump at his event re-litigated the Harris debate on Tuesday night, insisting he had won even though a CNN flash poll showed viewers believed the vice president had a better performance and as her odds of winning the election rose in betting markets during the event.
The Republican presidential nominee assailed the debate’s moderators for fact-checking on-air his false claims, which included alleging that immigrants in an Ohio town were eating household pets and that some states allow babies to be killed after delivery.
Earlier: Trump Rules Out More Presidential Debates With Harris
“The two anchors, David Muir and Linsey Davis, sat there and only corrected me on things where I was right but didn’t correct Kamala,” Trump said. “The public was not fooled. They saw right through it. Kamala’s lies, an unprecedented partisan interference of two low-life anchors, they’re low-lifes, for them to do what they did,” he added.
Trump went on to repeat his claims about immigrants eating pets in Springfield.
“The migrants are walking off with the town’s geese,” he said, adding they were “even walking off with their pets.”
Campaign Blitz
Trump’s Thursday event kicked off a fevered stretch of campaigning, including a press conference, rallies and high-dollar fundraisers across Arizona, Nevada and California that have taken on new significance after the debate, which even some of his top supporters acknowledge could have gone better.
While the former president’s allies insist the debate is unlikely to be a make-or-break moment like his exchange with Biden in June, which effectively ended the president’s half-century political career, the pressure is back on Republicans to blunt Harris’ momentum.
Harris, by contrast, intends to capitalize on her showing, looking to solidify support among swing-state voters considering her candidacy anew after her promising debate performance.
The vice president kicked off her own post-debate blitz with a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she said the candidates “owe it to the voters to have another debate.”
Harris’ top aides began calling for a second debate before the candidates had even left the stage in Philadelphia.
The Democratic nominee hit Trump over his debate answers on abortion and health care — two issues where Democrats are eager to court suburban women and independents.
During the debate, the vice president pressed Trump on his plan for replacing Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act is known. The former president stopped short of an explicit bid to kill the program as he’s previously vowed, saying his team is looking at alternatives and has the “concepts of a plan” — a line Harris ridiculed.
“He said ‘concepts of a plan’” she said. “Concepts. Concepts. No actual plan, concepts.”
And she pointed out that Trump declined to say if he would veto a bill imposing a national ban on abortion. The former president in the debate said that while he is not in favor of abortion, the issue is now up to the states.
Harris Momentum
Harris’ team says it is shifting into a new, more assertive phase on the campaign trail. After limiting her interactions with the press — and facing criticism from Republicans and members of the media — she will begin sitting for more interviews, including some with local outlets in battleground states and with the National Association of Black Journalists next week.
Former President Barack Obama will also appear at a major fundraiser for Harris in Los Angeles on Sept. 20, according to a person familiar with the schedule, which will help bolster her campaign coffers and fund get-out-the-vote efforts.
Tuesday night’s debate had the air of a missed opportunity for Trump, who has an Electoral College advantage and is favored to prevail if the race remains tight. Polls have found Trump and Harris generally running neck-and-neck in surveys of the seven swing states expected to decide the election.
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Early Voting
Harris is riding high after the debate – and an endorsement from pop star Taylor Swift – seeking to translate that boost into votes.
Harris, her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, and their spouses are traveling to the battleground states over four days, according to the campaign, which has pegged it as the “New Way Forward Tour,” seeking to persuade voters who desire change that Harris is their candidate. That could be a challenging message for a Democrat whose agenda is largely aligned with Biden, something Trump regularly points out.
Harris’ Friday rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, will occur three days before that battleground becomes the first in the nation to kick off early voting, with Virginia, South Dakota and Vermont following next week.
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--With assistance from Akayla Gardner, Hadriana Lowenkron and Stephanie Lai.
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