- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
GOP lawmakers and analysts virtually unanimous that Trump was second best to Harris in first presidential debate
Donald Trump’s campaign was in damage control mode on Wednesday amid widespread dismay among supporters over a presidential debate performance that saw Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, repeatedly goad him into going wildly off-message and missing apparent opportunities to tackle her on policy.
Even with Trump insisting to have won the debate “by a lot”, Republicans were virtually unanimous that Trump had come off second best in a series of exchanges that saw the vice-president deliberately bait him on his weak points while he responded with visible anger.
The Republican nominee – who took the unusual step afterwards of visiting the media spin room, a venue normally frequented only by candidates’ surrogates – was non-committal on Wednesday to the Harris campaign’s proposal for a second debate. Despite widespread opinion to the contrary, Trump suggested she needed it because she had lost. “I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate,” he told Fox & Friends.
Not amongst the crowd that supports him, as they’re are all about how they feel about him, not about intellectually judging the quality of his arguments.
The “He was a weak drained old man in that debate” path of attack should be far more effective on that crowd, specifically on the ones who look up to him as being (in their view) strong, assertive and confident, who are probably the majority.
Like every other strongman “leader” out there, Donald’s strength in impressing a certain kind of voter - the ability to project an image of being decisive and assured for the more “instinctive judgments” and less intellectual crowd - becomes a weakness with age in situations when they’re publicly confronted with a younger and sharper opposing candidate.