Matt Laslo
September 11, 2024
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris accused her Republican rival Donald Trump of selling the United States out to China during their first debate © SAUL LOEB / AFP
WASHINGTON — Democrats on Capitol Hill are feeling bullish about Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy after Tuesday night’s presidential debate, even as many Republicans are now tripling down on their anti-media rhetoric while avoiding talking about former President Donald Trump’s head-spinning performance.
“This was a massive win for Kamala. It was actually much more of a win for Kamala than I was expecting,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) — who represents Philadelphia, which hosted the debate — texted Raw Story. “Most debates tend to have no clear-cut winner. This was an exception.”
Some Democrats couldn’t keep a straight digital face during the debate and took to social media to rip Trump.
“Trump Debate Team: stay calm, focused, stay on policy, stay serious, focused,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) tweeted out for millions to see on X. “Trump: they are eating dogs.”
— (@)
Trump’s repeated resuscitation of conspiracy theories — from debunked claims that migrants are eating pets in Ohio to his claiming he won the 2020 election against now-President Joe Biden — made many cringe to the point of almost pitying the former president.
ALSO READ: Caller asks if Trump will reveal himself as the Antichrist — many believe he already has
“If this was a boxing match a referee never would have let it go on for Trump,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) texted Raw Story. “They should debate again. If Trump can get a doctor’s note to return to the ring.”
It’s not just Democrats who were left shaking their heads.
“Donald Trump is unfit for office. Kamala Harris cooked that senile old bastard,” former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) texted Raw Story as he was about to enter Ukraine late Tuesday evening. “A conspiratorial felon, Putin apologist and U.S. hater should never be POTUS.”
Trump’s staunchest congressional allies beg to differ.
“Trump was the change agent. She tried to convince the country everything is awesome,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) texted Raw Story.
Still, other Republicans are blaming the moderators for Trump’s poor performance.
“Harris and ABC worked well together!” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) texted Raw Story.
That narrative was nothing new. Many Republicans were pushing that narrative on Capitol Hill in the lead-up to the debate.
“Well, the media's a powerful force. They gaslight. They cover up for the Democrats. That makes our job more difficult,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story Monday evening at the U.S. Capitol. “They couldn't cover up for Biden anymore. They covered up for him, allowed him to campaign from his basement to win the presidency, covered up on the open border.”
Other Republicans waxed philosophical in the wake of the cringe-worthy debate performance.
“You bring your side,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) texted Raw Story. “I’ll bring mine and we both leave thinking we won.”
While many Democrats were nervous going into Tuesday night, many are now breathing sighs of relief.
“I think Harris achieved her goals: turn the page, look to a better future, and exposing Trump’s massive weaknesses,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) texted Raw Story. “Trump came across as angry and stuck on old talking points. A solid win for Harris 56 days out from theelection.”
Matt Laslo has covered Congress since 2006, bringing Raw Story readers the personalities behind the politics and policy straight from Capitol Hill. Based in Washington, D.C., Matt has been a long-time contributor to NPR, WIRED, VICE News, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. More about Matt Laslo.
The former president flopped in his debate against Kamala Harris, but that wont stop his sycophants from making excuses for him
BY NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ
ROLLING STONE
SEPTEMBER 11, 2024
Donald Trump listens during a presidential debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 10, 2024. SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Donald Trump imploded on the debate stage against Kamala Harris on Tuesday night. The former president fell for obvious bait presented by the vice president, delivered a series of angry diatribes in the style of his rallies, and told lies that repeatedly forced ABC News’ moderators to fact-check him in real-time.
Right-wing lawmakers and commentators are offering a menu of excuses to minimize the damage. In the post-debate spin room and on social media, the former president’s allies are floating everything from moderator bias, to conspiracies about hidden earpieces, to claims that debates don’t actually matter.
The immediate target of the right’s ire were ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Trump himself claimed that the two hosts had unfairly ganged up on him — when really they were just fact-checking some of his most absurd claims. In one instance, Muir debunked an outburst by Trump in which he accused undocumented migrants of killing and eating people’s pets. During another exchange, the moderators pushed back on Trump’s contention that Democrats support executing infants shortly after birth.
“It was three against one,” Trump complained after leaving the stage.
The grievance was echoed by right-wing influencers and commentators.
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair, also described the debate as “three on one.”
HANNITY: What was your overall view of the debate?
LARA TRUMP: It was three on one
(They can't spin this one) pic.twitter.com/LzhpvDpDpK— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2024
The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro wrote on X — formerly Twitter — that “ABC’s moderators are a disgrace to their profession.”
Sen. Lindsay Graham wrote that “the moderators might as well be on the DNC payroll. This is ridiculous. This is the worst moderated debate in history.”
The moderators might as well be on the DNC payroll. This is ridiculous.
This is the worst moderated debate in history.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 11, 2024
“This is not a debate, this is public show trial where the judge, jury, and executioner is ABC News,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk raged.
Other pro-Trump accounts began tweeting a conspiracy suggesting that Harris’s earrings were secret earpieces that allowed her to be fed answers by her staff. A quick side-by-side view of the advertised earpieces and the jewelry worn by Harris shows that they bear only the vaguest of resemblances.
The QAnon/conspiracy sphere is all in on "Kamala's earrings were actually earphones."
That's how you know they know they lost. They're making up conspiracy theories to cover for Trump's disastrous performance. pic.twitter.com/DWwHQPzYfj— Mike Rothschild (no relation) (@rothschildmd) September 11, 2024
There were also plenty who just went ahead and said Trump performed better than Harris. Jesse Watters argued on Fox News that Trump had actually won the debate because his “memorable” lines would dominate the conversation. If “you’re a Republican, you look at this and you’re like ‘That’s Donald Trump,’” he said.
Fox News host Jesse Watters: Trump won the debate because he had "all the memorable lines", such as when he lied about immigrants eating pets: pic.twitter.com/cRfVmNqXqk— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) September 11, 2024
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote on X that Trump delivered a “strong debate victory” and a “powerful America First message.” She also called the moderators “pro-Kamala activists who baselessly attacked President Trump.”
Perhaps the most insane attempt to draw attention away from Trump’s poor showing came from Elon Musk, who responded to a Tuesday night endorsement of Harris by Taylor Swift by making a deranged offer to the pop superstar.
“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” he wrote.
But even Musk had to acknowledge Harris performed well. “While I don’t think the debate hosts were fair to @realDonaldTrump, @KamalaHarris exceeded most people’s expectations tonight,” he added.
Fox News’ Brit Hume also acknowledged that Harris was not the bumbling caricature created by right-wing media.
This is a “different person from the person she was in the interview of CNN, but a different person from the absolute dunderhead so many of us thought she was during her conduct as vice president” he said.
“She was prepared. She kept her cool. She saw advantages and took them. She baited him successfully, which is the story of the debate in my view. So she came out ahead in this, in my opinion, no doubt,” Hume added.
‘He needs to control himself’: Young Republicans have a mixed reaction to Trump at their DC watch party
‘I’m not sure that this Trump ticket has a future,’ one attendee told Katie Hawkinson as she reported from the party in DC
On Tuesday night, at a sports bar a mile away from Capitol Hill in Washington DC, dozens of young Republicans — and independents — gathered to watch Donald Trump face off against Kamala Harris for the very first time. At the watch party, hosted by the Young Republicans of Washington DC, the energy was high.
When Trump first took the debate stage, the small sports bar in northeast DC erupted in applause and chants of: “USA!”
Then, as the camera first cut to Harris, the tone shifted to a chorus of boos and jeers. Attendees shouted, “Go back to California!” and, “Shut up!” as she made her first remarks on the economy.
One of the biggest cheers of the night wasn’t even for Trump – but rather for the moderators’ announcement that they would be moving to the immigration and border security segment.
“This is the best part,” one attendee exclaimed.
While many young Republican voters who attended had nothing but praise for the former president, others weren’t so sure about Trump’s conduct.
Several young Republican and independent voters who attended told The Independent they hoped the former president would cool down his rhetoric — even as they plan to vote for him come November.
Benaya Cherlow, a 27-year-old Israeli-American, told The Independent he supports Trump and the Republican Party and believes that Trump will be the better leader for both Israel and the US. But he also urged Trump to “control himself” and use more moderate language in order to win support.
“He needs to control himself if he wants people to believe he can make it,” Cherlow said. “It’s not only personal things against Kamala. As a person, he should be more moderate. If you want to be a leader... you should be moderate.”
David Swanke, a 40-year-old who plans to vote for Trump, echoed this sentiment, telling The Independent early into the debate that he thought there was a notable lack of “name-calling” and “cheap shots.”
Trump is, of course, no stranger to name-calling, labeling the vice president “Laffin’ Kamala,” “Lyin’ Kamala,” and, confusingly, “Kamabla” in recent weeks.
But while Trump may have started off calm, his explosiveness ramped up throughout the debate, soon falling into old habits of ranting, raving and spreading false claims.
At one point, Trump falsely claimed that Democrats want to allow abortions after a child is already born. When ABC News’s Linsey Davis fact-checked Trump’s falsehood, a murmur flew through the bar, but only a few outwardly booed or reacted to the moment. Davis was soon targeted with racist and sexist abuse online for her fact-checking.
This was just one of many false claims and theories Trump spouted throughout the debate as he repeated discredited claims about immigrants eating household pets and wildly claimed Harris wants “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”
For John Logan, a 26-year-old who works in politics and who isn’t planning to vote for either candidate this November, Harris was ultimately the winner of the debate.
“I think Harris has won the debate tonight,” Logan told The Independent. “Trump has to make it up in the next debate.” There are, however, so far no further debates planned between Trump and Harris.
“She really came out full force. I was expecting maybe a little bit of hesitation, maybe a little bit of difficulty on the first debate stage, but nothing,” Logan continued.
“She came out presidential and that was amazing. The way he incites his base and the rhetorical style he uses is unconstructive and doesn’t bring us together as people.”
This is something that analysts have warned poses a problem for Trump’s campaign: his tendency to go off-message and potentially turn voters off with his inflammatory rhetoric.
Evan Siegfried, a political strategist who has previously worked on GOP campaigns, told The Independent last month that Trump lacks “message discipline,” which can prompt concerns when he’s unsupervised at a rally podium or on the debate stage.
Dr Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northwestern University, agreed. “There’s always a risk that Trump will say something that will backfire on the campaign trail,” Panagopoulos told The Independent in August.
Harris played into these concerns during Tuesday night’s debate.
“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter [at his rallies],” the vice president said. “He will talk about how windmills cause cancer. What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. The one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.”
While some had concerns about his messaging, many attendees at Tuesday night’s watch party had no criticisms of Trump and declared him the ultimate winner of the night.
Isaac Smith, a board member for DC Young Republicans, said he has never been concerned about Trump’s rhetoric.
“I don’t think that toning it down actually helps him,” he told The Independent.
Joan Laureano, a 20-year-old college student from Maryland who spoke to The Independent while wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, said that in his opinion, Trump undoubtedly won the debate.
Ultimately, the so-called winner of Tuesday’s debate will be decided in less than eight weeks’ time on Election Day.
While Harris is currently ahead of Trump by 2.8 points, according to the latest average of national polls, those numbers could easily shift as voters mull over what they heard on the debate stage.
As the debate came to an end, Logan voiced some of the strongest criticism of Trump in the room: “I’m not sure that this Trump ticket has a future.”
