CNN
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When former President Donald Trump looks up from his seat at Bryant-Denny Stadium during the Alabama-Georgia football game on Saturday night, he may see more than 100,000 fans watching a high-stakes college football game. That’s because Vice President Kamala Harris plans to troll her opponent for his refusal to debate her a second time — from the air.

The Harris campaign has arranged for a small plane to fly over Tuscaloosa during the game with a banner that reads: “Trump’s Punting on 2nd Debate.”

It’s a challenge that won’t just be visible to those cheering on the Crimson Tide or Georgia Bulldogs from the stands, a campaign official tells CNN. The Harris campaign will also air a national ad during one of college football’s most highly anticipated games, calling on the former president to meet her again on the debate stage.

“Winners never shy away from a challenge,” says the ad’s narrator. “Champions know it can be anytime, anywhere. But losers, they whine and doubt and take their ball home.

The vice president’s campaign has accepted CNN’s invitation for a second debate next month, but Trump has so far declined to accept it, arguing that the Oct. 23 date is “too late” for another showdown. as early voting has already started in some states. Both the 2020 and 2016 races included mid-October debates in which Trump participated.

Despite what he has said publicly, Trump has privately flirted with the idea of ​​meeting Harris again on the debate stage, sources told CNN. Several of his advisers have argued that giving Harris more than four years in office to fulfill the campaign promises she is now making could serve as a way to make his case to the American people, a message that some allies of Trump have not achieved. I think he pushed hard enough when they debated in Philadelphia earlier this month.

But some Trump advisers are convinced that won’t happen. The former president himself has said it could depend on his mood.

A second meeting could also benefit Harris. Although several polls, including the New York Times-Sienna College, showed that viewers overwhelmingly thought Harris defeated Trump in the debate, this failed to produce a significant bump and the race remained deadlocked.