Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he will not debate Democratic nominee Kamala Harris again.
"THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social after debating the vice-president on American ABC News on Tuesday.
Several polls showed a majority of viewers believed Ms Harris outperformed Trump during the televised debate.
Six Republican donors and three Trump advisers who spoke to Reuters this week said they thought the Democrat had won the debate largely because Trump was unable to stay on message.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he won the Philadelphia debate, watched by 67.1 million people, according to Nielsen data.
Ms Harris, speaking at a rally shortly after Trump's post went live, said: "I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate."
The former president took several unexpected turns during the debate, speaking at one point about an online conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets in Ohio.
"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats … they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame," Trump said.
Local officials in the Ohio city of Springfield say there is no evidence that household dogs and cats are being turned into food.
Trump had debated President Joe Biden in June before the incumbent chose to retire from the 2024 presidential race, in a debate that largely drew attention for Mr Biden's stumbling performance.
Singer Taylor Swift endorsed Ms Harris shortly after the debate ended, writing in a post on Instagram that the Democratic candidate was a "steady-handed, gifted leader" to her 284 million followers.
Trump responded by saying Swift would "probably pay a price" for the endorsement.
Some charges dismissed but gag order stands
A Georgia judge on Thursday dismissed two criminal counts in the US state's 2020 election interference case against Trump and one other count against allies of the former president.
A local judge found state prosecutors did not have the authority to bring charges related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court.
Eight other charges against Trump will go ahead, with 14 co-defendants and the former president pleading not guilty to offences related to what prosecutors allege was a scheme to overturn Trump's narrow defeat in Georgia in 2020.
The next court dates are listed for December, meaning the case will not proceed before the November 5 election.
Elsewhere in New York, a court upheld a gag order imposed on Trump after his criminal conviction on charges related to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The New York state Court of Appeals said on Thursday it was dismissing Trump's appeal of the gag order because "no substantial constitutional question is directly involved".
Trump had argued the restrictions on his ability to speak publicly about court staff and individual prosecutors violated his right to free speech as guaranteed by the US constitution's first amendment.
Reuters/ABC
