Chris Wallace: Debate with Harris ‘scared’ Trump

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said he thinks Vice President Harris “scared” former President Trump during their presidential debate, which is why there won’t be another meeting before Election Day.

On Tuesday, Wallace joined “The View,” where he was asked by Sara Haines what he thought about Trump backing out of a “60 Minutes” interview, the first time a major-party presidential candidate has done so in more than 50 years.

“I don’t have a firm answer … but I have a gut feeling,” Wallace responded, highlighted by Mediaite. “And my gut feeling is that debate, on some, level scared Donald Trump, and he realized that, one, giving a platform to Kamala Harris is a bad idea, which is why he’s not going to do another debate which would attract 50 [million], 60 [million], 70 million people.”

“And if he were to appear on ’60 Minutes’ alongside her, people were going to, one, compare them, and, two, it was going to attract a bigger audience,” he continued.

Harris and Trump met on Sept. 10 for a debate hosted by ABC News. It was widely viewed as a win for Harris, and the former president declared he would not participate in another.

Wallace pointed to how tight the race is between Harris and Trump and argued that the former president is opting to stick with what he knows works, hosting rallies with his supporters.

“He’s got a huge base that is going to support him despite all of the reasons that you guys have been talking about today,” Wallace told the hosts.

With just a few weeks until the election, Harris and Trump are deadlocked.

Wallace said he thought the vice president had a “fantastic launch” and was going to have a “shutout” after the Democratic National Convention and a strong debate performance against Trump. She’s raised record funds but is still in a fight for her political future.

“It feels to me like she has plateaued, and she has to find a way to kind of close the sale,” Wallace said. “Close the sale about what she would do and who she is because I think people still have questions about that.”

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Harris has a 2.9-point lead over Trump nationally based on an aggregation of polls.