Kamala Harris had no intention of stopping at the podium.
When Harris and former President Donald Trump walked on stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night for their first presidential debate, the vice president walked past his podium to Trump, confidently initiated a handshake and greeted him.
“Let’s have a good conversation,” Harris said.
“Congratulations,” Trump replied before Harris returned to his podium.
It was a move to assert a dominant position that Trump himself used to regularly exercise.
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Harris’ attack in the opening stages was symbolic of much of the ensuing 90 minutes, which ended up being a stunning juxtaposition to June’s first presidential debate, in which Trump beat Joe Biden to the point that the presidency was suspended. competitive.
The debate was a missed opportunity for many Trump allies who hoped a solid performance would turn the page on Harris’ “honeymoon” season.
The debates, held roughly every two months, have had dramatically different results for Trump, leaving some of his supporters worried that his latest performance could fuel him, while others defended his performance.
“Kamala had the burden of convincing voters that he could turn around an economy that was failing because of his votes in the Senate,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a longtime Trump ally who helped him prepare for the debate. “He failed to face the moment when President Trump effectively reflected the economic concerns of the American people.”
“Kamaala joy doesn’t pay the grocery bills,” he added. “President Trump showed that he is determined to fix what he broke.”
However, even some Trump supporters worried that his lackluster showing less than two months before Election Day is a self-inflicted wound.
“I know everyone in the world has said this, but the inability or unwillingness to realize when he’s been baited and not fall for it is consistently baffling,” the longtime Republican operative said.
Other members of Trump’s debate camp, who were granted anonymity to speak freely, said they agreed the performance was weak and at times Harris caught him flat-footed, but they were skeptical that in an election cycle where both parties are already entrenched in their view that this a conversation can get many votes.
“It wasn’t his best performance, without a doubt,” one Trump adviser said. “But he did enough to get out, I think, without losing any votes. Like anything else, debate has a short shelf life. People move on to the next one.”
Trump has participated in 18 debates across his three presidential bids, making him one of the most experienced debaters in American political history. In nearly all of those contests, Trump was a tour de force, using his hyper-aggressive style and willingness to flood the zone with lies to take most of the room’s oxygen and overshadow his opponents.
“This guy doesn’t play by the rules, which means he has more options, and when someone has more options, he’s a more challenging person to talk to,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC before the debate began. “So I’m not saying this is not only high stakes, but this is a huge challenge.”
This time, however, those Trump axioms didn’t strike a chord with Harris, who throughout the night beckoned the former president to focus on grievances — like the size of the crowds at his rallies — that he’s long noted as conspiratorial. lies — like Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating family pets — that Trump’s advisers hoped he would avoid in order to focus on Harris’ record, which is littered with policy position changes.
“They’re eating dogs, people that came in, they’re eating cats,” Trump said in an immigration-related response. “They’re eating the pets of the people who live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
In a brief appearance in the spin room after the debate, Trump doubled down on the exposed story, which was started by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and has been denied by local officials.
In the same conversation with reporters, Trump said it was his “best conversation ever.”
The perception that Trump lost the debate was so overwhelming that even some of his staunchest cheerleaders couldn’t run the show immediately afterward.
“While I don’t think the hosts of the debate were fair to @RealDonaldTrump @KamalaHarris exceeded most people’s expectations tonight,” Elon Musk posted on social media X Tuesday night.
Not only has Musk endorsed Trump, he also funds a pro-Trump super PAC.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Harris “moved the betting market a little bit,” while three other Republican sources told NBC News that Trump became “angry” when Harris pushed his buttons and made him go off on tangents after asking about some of his key policy areas.
Christopher Rufo, a right-wing education reformer and prominent conservative activist, said Harris won the night.
“Harris wins by a slight margin,” he wrote on social media. “This shouldn’t change the race significantly either way, but he was able to de-risk this event and now the right has lost the narrative that Harris refuses media or engagement. It will be interesting to see if he goes silent again.”
Blaming ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis became a common theme for Trump supporters trying to put a positive spin on the night’s events. On a few occasions, the pair fact-checked Trump in real time, which his supporters said was evidence of bias — especially since they did so significantly less for Harris. He brought a lot less lies to the conversation.
“I’m still baffled as to why any Republican presidential candidate would submit to activist moderators who run the gamut and undermine conservative Republicans in any debate,” said Ed McMullen, a South Carolina-based Trump fundraiser who served as Switzerland’s ambassador. Trump’s first term.
He said less attention should have been paid to abortion, which has been a key issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and has so far been an issue that has benefited Democrats politically.
“People are suffering in this economy, and politicians on the left and the right want to talk about abortion,” McMullen said. “States now have an obligation to act – to get rid of it. It’s time to move on and face the issues that affect real people every day.”
Others specifically criticized the fact that the moderators of the debate did not focus enough on Harris’ own background, including his own 2020 presidential run, where he carried several positions in the Democratic primaries that are now seen as far-left in the general election.
Those positions, many of which were recently outlined in a CNN report on an American Civil Liberties Union nomination poll Harris filed at the time, include his support for using taxpayer dollars to pay for gender reassignment surgeries for immigrants in federal prison.
“It is important that transgender individuals who are dependent on government care receive the care they need, including access to gender reassignment care,” Harris wrote. “That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to perform gender reassignment surgeries on state inmates.”
It became a much-discussed topic among Trump supporters.
“Do you think it’s strange that someone can support something as radical as sex-change operations paid for by taxpayers on prisoners and illegal immigrants… without being asked?” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Trump in an interview after the debate.
“I brought it up,” Trump replied. “They weren’t too happy when I brought it up.”
Veteran Wall Street executive Omeed Malik, who has pledged to raise $3 million for Trump, said the former president made a “strong case” for his economic message, which includes reducing regulations, cutting taxes, strengthening the border and ending foreign churches.
“On the contrary,” he said. “Harris delivered canned and rehearsed platitudes that failed to defend his administration’s failures on inflation, immigration and foreign policy.”
Adding to the chaos of the night was Taylor Swift’s support for Harris after the debate. The pop star posted on Instagram that she supports Harris because “she fights for rights and causes, and I think it takes a warrior to stand up for them.”
Swift has 283 million followers on Instagram, which is far more than the number of people who voted in the 2020 election.
In an early morning call to “Fox and Friends,” Trump again defended his debate performance and predicted Swift would regret her endorsement.
“I’m not a Taylor Swift fan,” he said, adding, “She’s probably going to pay the price for that in the market.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
