Conservative pundits acknowledged on Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris got the better of former President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia, citing her success in getting under his skin.
“Let’s make no mistake. Trump had a bad night,” Fox News host Brit Hume said. “We just heard so many of the old grievances that we all know aren’t winners politically.”
“She was exquisitely well-prepared, she laid traps, and he chased every rabbit down every hole,” added former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who often appears as a commentator on ABC News.
“Whoever prepared Donald Trump should be fired. He was not good tonight at all,” Christie said.
Harris baited Trump by bringing up the attendance at his campaign events, saying people leave his rallies early out of boredom and exhaustion. She also got under Trump’s skin by bringing up his calls for the execution of the Central Park Five, the teens who were later exonerated in the 1989 rape of a jogger, calling him a weak person who is mocked by world leaders and questioning his mental acuity.
“We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible in the history of politics,” Trump shot back at one point, veering off his message on immigration.
Trump also got into trouble by again denying he lost the 2020 presidential election despite only days earlier acknowledging he lost “by a whisker.” But the most bizarre moment of the night may have been Trump bringing up false reports of migrants eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, which Republicans have seized on as a reason to crack down on migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said. “The people on television are saying my dog was taken and used for food.”
The comment drew a rebuke from ABC News debate moderator David Muir, who said there was no evidence of such claims, adding that Springfield’s city manager denied any such cases existed.
“Trump lost the debate, and whining about the moderators doesn’t change it,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the Trump team’s complaints about the ABC moderators. “He didn’t lose because of their behavior. He lost because of his own performance while his lips were moving, not theirs.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was similarly critical of Trump’s performance. He said afterward that the former president’s debate team should be fired and that Trump was unprepared, calling the debate a “disaster,” according to The Bulwark’s Tim Miller.
