- 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 Trumpās campaign was in damage control mode on Wednesday amid widespread dismay among supporters over aĀ presidential debate performanceĀ that sawĀ Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, repeatedly goad him into going wildly off-message and missing apparent opportunities to tackle her on policy.
Even with TrumpĀ insistingĀ to have won the debate āby a lotā, 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 ā who took the unusual step afterwards of visiting the media spin room, a venue normally frequented only by candidatesā surrogates ā was non-committal on Wednesday to the Harris campaignās proposal for a second debate. Despite widespread opinion to the contrary, Trump suggested she needed it because she had lost. āIād be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate,ā he told Fox & Friends.
Iām surprised nobody is going after him for how low energy he was at the debate. He looked like he was gonna fall asleep. The only time his eyes opened wide was when she called out his crowd sizes
That was the least of his failings.
The blatant lying about pretty much everything is (and has always been) a much more serious problem with him.
I think people are talking about that because itās one of the criticisms against Biden in the first debate. Now Trump is the old, tired, crazy man who shouldnāt be in this race, never mind running the country.
Not amongst the crowd that supports him, as theyāre are all about how they feel about him, not about intellectually judging the quality of his arguments.
The āHe was a weak drained old man in that debateā 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 āleaderā out there, Donaldās strength in impressing a certain kind of voter - the ability to project an image of being decisive and assured for the more āinstinctive judgmentsā and less intellectual crowd - becomes a weakness with age in situations when theyāre publicly confronted with a younger and sharper opposing candidate.