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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    1291·
    2 months ago

    Also, I forgot to ask about this last night…

    “Where is he?” Trump asked. “They threw him out of the campaign like a dog.”

    Does Trump think you just kick dogs out of your home and they go away?

  • rustyfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
    802·
    2 months ago

    Second best?! Really? Now we think participation trophies are fine? Ok whatever.

    As for the aftermath of the debate. I like it. I enjoy that orange fuck getting made fun of and the memes are superb. But as expected, he could have yanked his pickle out and jerked off live on TV and his cultists would still defend him. I am 100% sure that this would have been the case. And there still would be people who are undecided!

    • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
      41·
      2 months ago

      Undecideds are fake by and large this time around. Just media bullshit or liars getting airtime.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
      2·
      2 months ago

      I listened to a podcast that interviewed “undecideds” in swing states.

      It’s was just absurd. They seem to be conservatives trying to make themselves feel more logical and intelligent.

      One of them said that he was disappointed Harris didn’t seem to have a week developed plan for the economy, because he had doubts about her financial outcomes, but didn’t about trump.

      It’s just absurd to me that anyone could spend more than a few seconds considering Trumps economic plans and conclude that he’s a sensible economic manager.

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
      313·
      2 months ago

      2nd best is a turn of phrase, an old one. It’s an insult. You must not be very well read.

  • elrik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    70·
    2 months ago

    What kind of lame equivocation is “second best?” If he’s “second best” in a debate with two people, then that means HE LOST.

    Are these GOP lawmakers and analysts so spineless and beholden to Trump that they cannot discuss this as just one more - in a long list - of his failures?

    • Enkrod@feddit.org
      24·
      2 months ago

      It wasn’t that long ago when Republicans complained about participation trophies and how, at sporting events in schools, the ones who did not win still were acknowledged for their effort. They were complaining that it would make children weak, not want to compete, not give their best effort if they got recognition without being the top dog.

      Now they demand their participation trophy and it better come with tendies!

    • bad_alloc@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      13·
      2 months ago

      Are these GOP lawmakers and analysts so spineless and beholden to Trump that they cannot discuss this as just one more - in a long list - of his failures?

      Yes :)

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      8·
      2 months ago

      They probably don’t want their inboxes filled with bomb and rape threats from the very domestic terrorists they radicalized.

    • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
      7·
      2 months ago

      I have hope that they will not learn from these mistakes and will therefore keep making them. I hope that hope is not misguided.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
        4·
        2 months ago

        I hope the crazies crash and burn and a reasonable, rationale alternative is made available to voters. Then Democrats will actually have to try instead of relying on “if you don’t vote for us the Dictator wins.”

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 months ago

      It’s worse than that. They think that toeing the line and refusing to deviate is the strong position to take here. Always has been.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
    54·
    2 months ago

    Kamala’s campaign: we’re going to bait him at the debate.

    Trump’s staff: she’s going to try to bait you.

    Everyone: Kamala is going to bait Trump.

    Trump: LOOK! BAIT! NOM

    They specifically tried to prepare him for this, they knew it was coming, and this was the result. How can he possibly be prepared to meet with world leaders?

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
        8·
        2 months ago

        I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! You can’t fact check me! I WATCHED IT ON TV!

      • EnderMB@lemmy.world
        6·
        2 months ago

        Their dear leader was literally named as someone that participated in a billionaire pedo ring!

    • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      23·
      2 months ago

      It’s just the_donald now.

      The whole party got taken over by crazies, and all the normal people are realising and getting out.

      Guess it’s hard to argue about child starvation being a matter of personal responsibility when the person next to you is wearing a KKK hood with a swastika on it.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        4·
        2 months ago

        and all the normal people are realising and getting out.

        No. Unfortunately not. They are just shutting up about it because they’re embarrassed.

        Though that was one of the first steps the country took to move past GWB (though unfortunately they moved to the right)… People becoming embarrassed to admit they voted for and/or supported him.

        I can speak from personal experience as the first presidential election I voted in was 2004 and at that time I had just begun my deconversion process from Evangelical Christianity, and I voted for Bush.

        I still cringe when I think about it. And it was within 4 years that I had become a progressive atheist. So maybe we’re not entirely screwed (though these people don’t seem to have the ability to think rationally that came to me naturally).

      • Emtity_13@lemmy.sdf.org
        4·
        2 months ago

        I still pine the hornets nest, both becuse it’s funny to see them get more and more angry, and on the very far off chance that it convices those of them left

        • Stupidmanager@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Actually, his eyelids were starting to droop towards the last 15min of the debate before his closing and while he was listening to Kamala. Slow and steady blinks. That man is running on drugs until he isn’t. Trump is tired.

          Also, love the reference to doctor who.

  • thawed_caveman@lemmy.world
    38·
    2 months ago

    OK so Biden had a bad debate, was visibly incoherent for a while beforeheand, and they took him out of the race.

    Now Trump has had a bad debate and has been visibly incoherent for years. Is the GOP going to take him out of the race for a stronger candidate?

    I don’t want to make a false equivalency, these are different parties and different candidates; Trump supporters are more loyal than usual, and he would take them with him as he’s not likely to accept his exclusion, so the GOP taking Trump out of the race is riskier than Dems taking Biden out of the race.

    But, seen from the left, conservatives are the ones with a reputation for ruthless pragmatism when it comes to electoral politics. They’re the ones who sacrifice their values by voting for candidates that do advance their goals.

    A lot of leftists, out of idealism, wouldn’t vote for Clinton in 2016 or Biden in 2020; meanwhile evangelicals made the pragmatic decision to vote for Trump, the least christian man in the whole GOP, because he furthers their anti-abortion agenda. I argue that conservatives are absolutely correct in this, voting for a candidate that you don’t like just to advance your goals is the correct approach to representative democracy. My evidence for this is that evangelical voters were rewarded for their vote when of Roe v Wade was overruled thanks to judges from the Trump administration.

    So i think, if the GOP replaces Trump but keeps an equally extremist agenda, there’s a world where electoral pragmatism causes those voters to transfer over, leading to better odds of a GOP victory. And a conservative presidency other than Trump would push their agenda more efficiently than the first Trump presidency did or than a second Trump presidency would.

    Uh… So DON’T do that. That should not happen. It would be the right thing for the GOP to do, which means it’s the wrong thing and i hope it doesn’t happen.

    • bitwaba@lemmy.world
      41·
      2 months ago

      The thing that allowed the Democrats to switch candidates was that the Democratic National Convention had not happened yet, which is when the candidate is officially locked in as the party’s candidate on ballots for president.

      The Republican National Convention was mid July. Trump and Vance are locked in. To swap candidates now would be considerably more difficult for them (not to mention having to fight against a self centered toddler that will refuse to let anyone other than him run).

      Swapping out candidates would be good for the Republicans. The process of swapping out candidates would not be.

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
        10·
        2 months ago

        I’m wondering if Biden withdrew after the rnc so he would be locked in. Not withstanding the pressure he faced.

      • Big_Boss_77@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        This is my thought as well… honestly, it might be a good thing because you know Trump will cry foul and all the… fine people…who are voting for him will eat it up and follow him into oblivion, thereby splitting the vote and allowing the whole thing to cave in on itself

    • nifty@lemmy.world
      22·
      2 months ago

      meanwhile evangelicals made the pragmatic decision to vote for Trump, the least christian man in the whole GOP, because he furthers their anti-abortion agenda. I

      Conservatives get abortions as soon as their own daughters get pregnant. They’re consummate hypocrites. Voting republican has always been about keeping workers deprived of rights and wage increases. No conservative gives a shit about the culture war stuff. The culture war is and has always been a distraction from creating welfare states like in EU.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
        15·
        2 months ago

        The culture war is an important piece of the conservative agenda- it isolates and eliminates the various groups that will group together to support non-conservatives.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 months ago

      They cannot swap him out because he will not cooperate. Attempting to swap him out would do nothing but split the vote for them.

      Repubs have spent decades propagandizing their fear-addicted voters with racist delusions. Donald has taken over that mechanism.

      The sane but sociopathic Repub leadership is experiencing the classic trope of a monster they thought was tame (the racist voters they have been agitating) turning on them (a dementia patient they have no control over blathering about eating cats during the debate).

  • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
    33·
    2 months ago

    I’m 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

    • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      I’m surprised nobody is going after him for how low energy he was at the debate.

      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.

      • AnActOfCreation@programming.dev
        2·
        2 months ago

        I think people are talking about that because it’s one of the criticisms against Biden in the first debate. Now Trump is the old, tired, crazy man who shouldn’t be in this race, never mind running the country.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        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.

  • Kokesh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    2 months ago

    He can’t ever be prepared. He is stupid, narcissistic, impulsive and damn senile. Not the best combo.

  • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
    22·
    2 months ago

    Republicans: “What a bad and unprepared debate that was! He didn’t even get to the part about how life begins at conception and guns are more important than children!”

  • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    20·
    2 months ago

    Hey now, let’s be fair!

    It’s entirely possible he rigorously prepared and that was genuinely the best he could do.