US Presidential Debate 2024: Despite former President Donald Trump hailing his presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris as his "best debate", some Republican officials, donors and advisors lamented his performance on Tuesday night, where Harris was able to get under his skin with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office, the size of his rallies and his legal problems.
"I think it was one of my better debates, maybe my best debate," Trump told the "Fox & Friends" program on Wednesday, adding that he was not sure whether to do another one. "I'd be less inclined ... because we had a great night." However, majority of polls suggested that Harris outperformed Trump in the 90-minute debate hosted by ABC News, which was crucial to reshape their race to the White House.
Both candidates took aim at each other's policies in a combative presidential debate. Trump accused the Biden administration of mishandling the economy and criticised their foreign policy. Harris put the former President on the defensive by attacking his controversial immigration reforms, abortion policies and handling of foreign affairs.
What did Republicans say on Trump's performance?
While some Republicans including JD Vance and Marco Rubio stood by Trump's claims and criticised the ABC moderators for fact-checking the former President, some party members acknowledged that his performance was poor. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, was one of the few party leaders to publicly talk negatively about his performance.
"A missed opportunity," Graham told reporters of Trump's debate performance, adding that the former president had failed to stay focused and lost chances to tout his record. Chris Christie, a former Trump ally-turned-critic who ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Harris was "exquisitely" prepared whereas Trump was not.
"Whoever did debate prep for Donald Trump should be fired. He was not good tonight at all," Christie, who helped Trump with debate preparation in the 2016 election cycle, said on ABC News. “She crushed him,” a Republican battleground strategist told Politico. “He was unprepared and rambled. He fell back to the same old talking points and when she went on attack, she successfully got under his skin." However, many Republicans said that Harris did not shine either.
Additionally, six Republican donors and three Trump advisers, all but one asking to remain anonymous to speak freely, also told Reuters they thought Harris had won the debate largely because Trump was unable to stay on message. Several brought up, with dismay, that Trump's amplification of a false online claim that numerous Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents' pets. "My honest opinion is that Trump underperformed and she overperformed," said donor Bill Bean, a commercial real estate investor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Vivek Ramaswamy, another 2024 Republican presidential aspirant, said Kamala Harris "exceeded the very low expectations purposely set for her".
Who won the presidential debate?
With eight weeks to go before the election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate offered a rare head-to-head opportunity to face tens of millions of TV viewers. Their ABC News debate attracted 67.1 million television viewers, according to Nielsen data, topping the roughly 51 million people who watched Trump debate then-candidate President Joe Biden in June.
Most of the US media leaned towards Harris in the debate. Politico declared the Democratic Vice President as the winner - and it wasn't close. "It gave Democrats the role reversal they had hoped for after their switch at the top of the ticket,'' it wrote.
The New York Times said Harris managed to "rattle" Trump and succeeding in veering him off his message and was left defending his own record rather than attacking hers. According to a CNN poll, 63 per cent of debate watchers said Harris put in a better performance while 37 per cent said the same of Trump. The New York Post also said Trump found himself on the backfoot as he found himself having to answer not only Harris’ repeated and pointed attacks on both his pride and policy, but a pair of moderators who also questioned his statements.
MSNBC also declared Harris the winner, saying, "A win. Kamala Harris. Throughout Tuesday’s debate, the vice president looked poised, qualified, and presidential." USA Today also commented that Trump found himself "repeatedly knocked on his heels" against Harris.
Many agree that Harris’ performance, in which she called Trump a "disgrace" and referred to his remarks as the "same old, tired playbook: a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling", was the complete opposite of President Joe Biden's in June. The VP's favorability rating increased by six points in the CNN poll, reaching 45 per cent, whereas Trump saw a slight decline in his favorability rating, dropping two points to 39 per cent.
(with agency input)
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