Associated Press
Donald Trump emerged Wednesday from a rocky debate against Kamala Harris looking to regain his footing with 54 days until Election Day, the first ballots already going out in Alabama and other states on the cusp of early voting.
Not even three months ago, Trump stepped off the debate stage in Atlanta having watched President Joe Biden deliver a disjointed, whispery performance that eventually led the 81-year-old Democrat to end his re-election bid and endorse Harris, his Vice President. By the end of Tuesday night, it was the 78-year-old Trump on the defensive after the 59-year-old Harris controlled much of the debate, repeatedly baiting the Republican former President into agitated answers replete with exaggerations and mistruths.
“We’ll see what the polls say going forward, but I don’t know how anybody can spin this other than a pretty decisive defeat for Trump,” former U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican who has long been critical of Trump, said Wednesday on CNN.
Trump and Harris were together briefly Wednesday in New York, where they joined President Biden and other dignitaries to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. They shook hands for a second time the morning after Harris approached Trump on the debate stage to introduce herself, the first sign of the aggressive approach she would take during the event.
The former President, who flouted convention with a surprise appearance late Tuesday in the post-debate spin room, continued Wednesday morning to insist he had won the night, though he also blasted ABC moderators as unfair — a tacit acknowledgement that he did not accomplish what he wanted against Harris.
“We had a great night. We won the debate. We had a terrible, a terrible network,” Trump said Wednesday on Fox News. “They should be embarrassed. I mean they kept correcting me and what I said was largely right or I hope it was right.”
Trump’s framing of the debate results does not square with the broad consensus of political commentators, strategists on both sides of the political aisle and some immediate assessments by voters who watched Tuesday night. But there is also evidence that the debate did not immediately yield broad shifts among people who watched.
About 6 in 10 debate-watchers said that Harris outperformed Trump, while about 4 in 10 said that Trump did a better job, according to a flash poll conducted by CNN. Before the debate, the same voters were evenly split on whether Trump or Harris would win.
The vast majority of debate-watchers — who, importantly, do not reflect the views of the full voting public — also said that the event wouldn’t affect their votes in the election. Perceptions of the two candidates remain largely unchanged.
Harris was jubilant late Tuesday, telling late-night rallygoers in Philadelphia that it was a “great night,” even as she repeated that she sees Democrats as “underdogs” against Trump. She garnered the endorsement of music and cultural icon Taylor Swift, an intensely popular figure.
Harris’ campaign immediately pitched the idea of a second debate. Fox News has proposed an October matchup but with moderators that Trump has indicated he does not prefer.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire was more charitable to Trump than some, allowing that Harris won by traditional debate standards but fell short in convincing swing voters focused on their economic conditions.
“The majority of those swing voters are still results driven,” Sununu said on CNN, adding that Trump still has opportunities to sway voters on the economy, immigration and, especially, foreign policy.
Perhaps Sununu’s most revealing assessment, though, came not when he talked about Trump but about another Republican the Governor originally supported in the 2024 primaries: former Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was the last GOP candidate standing against Trump and continued garnering support in Primaries weeks after she dropped out of the race.
“Imagine what Nikki would have done in that debate,” Sununu said. “It would have been great.”
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
11 comments
Dont Say FLA
September 11, 2024 at 12:33 pm
What rocky debate? He did the exact same as he does every single time. The only difference this time was his opponent was both a competent human being and awake.
PeterH
September 11, 2024 at 12:35 pm
The visible sweat on the manchild’s upper lip in the last half of the 90 minute debate is a stress reaction to another horrible debate and the foreshadowing of a lonely prison cell lacking McDonald hamburgers. Donald could once again hear his father scolding “you’re such a loser!”
People Are Saying
September 11, 2024 at 12:36 pm
People Are Saying even the MAGA crowd finally figured Trump out and the GOP is going to try to dump his daughter-in-law-or-whatever and then dump him.
But with just days to go to the first early voting day and 54 days until the final voting day, is there enough time for them to pull some rabbit out of their very lost hat?
PeterH
September 11, 2024 at 12:49 pm
When Dick Cheney says you’re too far right and too fascist for his tastes and to point out he’s voting Democratic against you, brother, you got some very serious issues, and the entire GOP should reflect on that!
Alexa is Biased
September 11, 2024 at 12:56 pm
Independent? Ha! Ha!
Yrral
September 11, 2024 at 8:21 pm
Keeping on tripping on you own feets will not let you walk to victory
JD
September 12, 2024 at 10:35 am
Did PeterH’s words get lost in translation at the overseas paid comment farm? Where did he say or imply “Independent”?
Michael K
September 11, 2024 at 2:51 pm
Typical: Bame the network and the moderators, even though Trump spoke for nearly 10 minutes more than the Vice President.
Trump carried himself very poorly. We saw a very angry and unhinged Trump, rattled and defensive the entire time. Migrants eating pet dogs in Springfield? Not just bizarre but just another lie.
Kamala Harris controlled the debate, hands down. I doubt there will be another debate. Harris carried herself competently and acted presidential, while her opponent wallowed in grievance and self-pity. She spoke to the American people, he could not even look her in the eye.
Republicans are going to have a difficult time polishing this one.
My Take
September 11, 2024 at 3:04 pm
We saw a very angry and unhinged Trump, rattled and defensive the entire time.
=========
Just the way we like him.
Jojo
September 11, 2024 at 3:04 pm
In the words of Kamala Harris, she ate him for lunch.
No matter how many times his aides urge him to stay on message, it doesn’t do any good. This is who he is.
Dont Say FLA
September 12, 2024 at 8:52 am
This is who he is … NOW. Saw some clips of him from debates of years past. Those clips reveal his cognitive decline very clearly.
He is at least awake, so that allowed him to win against sleepy head Biden. But given an opponent who was awake, man oh man, he was the crazy old man show.
The Donald’s lost all his steps and now just angrily parrots Cucker Tarlson and Elong Mush and whatever other conservative influencers he consumes nonstop (while awake)
The Trump Train of years past is now just the turnip truck. Turnip J Truck.
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