Kellyanne Conway, the former adviser to former president Donald Trump, said Monday that she’s goading her erstwhile boss to “get back in there” and debate Vice President Kamala Harris again.
Trump—who polls show was widely seen as the loser of last month’s presidential debate hosted by ABC—has rejected calls for a rematch, dismissing an October 23 CNN debate that Harris has agreed to as “too late.”
Conway, however, said the attention-loving Trump won’t be able to resist his need to have the last word in all things after he sees Tuesday’s vice presidential sparring match between his running mate JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
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“I asked President Trump today, interviewed him for an hour, I said to him, ‘The guy I know, you, is not going to be able to sit down after a 90-minute VP debate and let that be the last word in presidential debates’,” Conway told Fox News show Jesse Watters Primetime. “You’re going to say, ‘when’s our next one?’ And I hope he does that.”
Conway said she believes Trump “said no, but he didn’t say totally no” when it comes to facing Harris again. While Trump considers the CNN debate too far along in the calendar, she asked, “Why not get back in there?”
Conway added that she personally tried to juice Trump’s ego by comparing him to Major League Baseball standout Shohei Ohtani, who this year became the first player in league history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season.
“I told him, you’re like Shohei Ohtani, you’re pitching, you’re batting, you’ve done seven of them,” she said, noting the number of debates Trump has participated in across his three runs for the Oval Office. Conway then seemingly acknowledged Harris’ win in the first debate: “She’s one for one, big deal.”
Trump might not appreciate the comparison: he’s a lifelong New York Yankees fan and Ohtani plays for the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Presumably, he’d prefer to be likened to Bronx Bombers standout Aaron Judge, who bested Ohtani this year as the MLB’s leader in home runs and runs batted in.
