Mary Trump on debate: Winners don’t ‘turn down’ the chance to ‘win again’

Former President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, said she thinks her uncle knows he lost the presidential debate earlier this week because winners don’t turn down the opportunity to “win again.”

Mary Trump joined MSNBC’s Alex Witt on Saturday to discuss Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Vice President Harris.

Mary Trump has been an outspoken critic of her uncle and his campaign. She joined the Biden campaign in its spin room after the first presidential debate in June.

The GOP nominee made a surprise appearance in the spin room following his debate with Harris, where he sought to dismiss questions about his performance and declare himself the winner of the evening.

“I think Donald showed his hand, well, during the debate, for sure, but immediately afterwards. Winners do not show up in the spin room and winners do not turn down an opportunity to win again,” Mary Trump said.

Immediately following the debate, the Harris campaign announced it would be open to another debate with Trump, capitalizing on the vice president’s strong performance Tuesday. Trump posted to his Truth Social site the next day saying “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

Mary Trump said those two actions by her uncle after the debate show that “he knows he lost this debate.”

“He knows that he will lose the next one, and the only move that would strike him to get him to debate again would be desperation,” she said.

She argued that Trump “can’t deny” that he had a bad night compared to Harris. The vice president baited him throughout the event and caused him to ramble, shout and avoid eye contact.

“On the other hand, and I think this is one of the reasons he went to the spin room. He thinks that just by virtue of his showing up, he can change the narrative,” Mary Trump said.

No matter what the former president was trying to accomplish by heading into the spin room, Mary Trump said she thinks agreeing to another debate with Harris would be “the most foolish thing” for her uncle to do.

“I guess we’ll see again if the mood strikes him,” she said.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung dismissed Mary Trump’s comments in a statement to The Hill.

“As President Trump said, he totally dominated Kamala Haris on the debate stage and because she was so thoroughly defeated, she begged for another one as soon as the debate was over because she lost so bad,” Cheung said.