Kamala Harris had no intention of remaining on her podium.
As Harris and former President Donald Trump took the stage for their first presidential debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, the vice president strolled past their podium to Trump, confidently shook his hand and greeted him.
“Let’s have a serious debate,” Harris said.
“Good luck,” Trump replied before Harris returned to her podium.
It was a move to assert his dominance, which Trump himself had regularly used in the past.
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Harris’s decision to go on the offensive in this first exchange was emblematic of much of the next 90 minutes, which ultimately represented a striking contrast to the first presidential debate in June, in which Trump was so victorious over Joe Biden that Biden dropped out of the race.
For many Trump allies, the debate was a missed opportunity. They had hoped that a convincing performance would put an end to Harris’ “honeymoon.”
The debates, which took place about two months apart, ended very differently for Trump. Some of his supporters are worried that his latest performance could send him into a downward spiral, while others are defending his performance.
“Kamala had the burden of convincing voters that she could turn around an economy that was failing because of her tie vote in the Senate,” said Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a longtime Trump ally who helped him prepare for the debate. “She didn’t understand the situation because President Trump reflected Americans’ economic fears.”
“Kamala’s joy is not enough to pay the grocery bills,” he added. “President Trump has shown he is committed to fixing what she broke.”
However, even among some Trump supporters, there was concern that his lackluster performance less than two months before Election Day was self-inflicted.
“I know everyone in the world has said this, but the inability or unwillingness to recognize when they are being baited and not fall for it never ceases to amaze,” said one longtime Republican official.
Others from Trump’s debate camp, granted anonymity to speak freely, said they agreed that the performance was lackluster and that Harris caught him off guard at times, but they expressed skepticism that this debate could move many votes in an election cycle in which both sides are already holding firm on their positions.
“It was not his best performance, without question,” said a Trump adviser. “But he did enough to get out without really losing votes. Like everything else, this debate will be short-lived. People will move on to what comes next.”
Trump has participated in 18 debates over the course of his three presidential campaigns, making him one of the most experienced debaters in American political history. In nearly all of these campaigns, Trump has been a tour de force, using his hyper-aggressive style and willingness to flood the debate with lies to grab most of the air in the room and outshine his opponents.
“This guy is not playing by the rules, which means he has more options, and when someone has more options, he’s a bigger challenge to debate,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC before the debate began. “So I’m not saying that there’s not just a lot at stake here, but a huge challenge.”
This time, however, those Trump principles didn’t work against Harris. Throughout the night, she tried to get the former president to focus on the kinds of grievances that have long been a thorn in his side – like the size of crowds at his rallies. She also tricked him into focusing on conspiracy-theory falsehoods – like that Haitian immigrants in Ohio eat their pets. Trump’s advisers had hoped he would avoid those topics to focus on Harris’s track record, which is full of policy reversals.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people who came here, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said in a response to immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people who live there, and that’s what’s happening in our country, and it’s a disgrace.”
In a brief appearance in the Spin Room after the debate, Trump stuck to the debunked story put forward by his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, and refuted by local officials. In the same exchange with reporters, Trump said it was his “best debate ever.”
The impression that Trump had lost the debate was so overwhelming that even some of his most loyal supporters were unable to denounce the performance immediately afterward.
“While I don’t think the debate moderators were fair to @RealDonaldTrump, @KamalaHarris exceeded most people’s expectations tonight,” Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X on Tuesday evening.
Not only does Musk support Trump, he also funds a pro-Trump super PAC.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Harris “moved the dots a little bit in the betting markets,” while three other Republican sources told NBC News that Trump came across as “angry” when Harris provoked him and sidelined him after questions about some of his key policies.
Christopher Rufo, a right-wing education reformer and prominent conservative activist, said Harris won the night.
“Harris narrowly wins on points,” he posted on social media. “This shouldn’t change the race in any significant way, but she was able to de-risk this event and now the right has lost the narrative that Harris rejects media or engagement. It will be interesting to see if she goes silent again.”
Blaming ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis became a common theme for Trump supporters trying to put a positive spin on the evening’s events. On several occasions, the two fact-checked Trump in real time, which his supporters said was evidence of bias – especially because they did so far less with Harris. She introduced far fewer falsehoods into the debate.
“I’m still baffled why a Republican presidential candidate would submit to activist moderators who are driven to whole numbers and undermine every conservative Republican in every debate,” said Ed McMullen, a South Carolina-based Trump fundraiser who served as ambassador to Switzerland during Trump’s first term.
He said less attention should have been paid to abortion, which became a central issue after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and has been an issue that has benefited Democrats politically.
“People are hurting in this economy, and politicians from the left and right want to talk about abortion,” McMullen said. “States now have a responsibility to act – to get it over with. It’s time to move on and address the issues that affect real people every day.”
Others specifically criticized the debate moderators for not sufficiently addressing Harris’s own background, including her own 2020 presidential run, during which she staked out several positions in the Democratic primaries that would now be considered far-left in a general election.
Those positions, many of which were laid out in a recent CNN report on a questionnaire Harris filled out at the time for American Civil Liberties Union candidates, include her support for using taxpayer money to fund gender reassignment surgery for immigrants in federal prisons.
“It is important that transgender people who rely on state care receive the treatment they need, including access to gender transition-related care,” Harris wrote. “That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Justice to offer gender transition surgery to state prisoners.”
It became a hotly debated topic among Trump supporters.
“Do you find it odd that someone can support something as radical as taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery for convicts and illegal immigrants … and not get a question about it?” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Trump in an interview after the debate.
“I brought it up,” Trump replied. “They weren’t so happy when I brought it up.”
Omeed Malik, a veteran Wall Street executive who has pledged to raise $3 million for Trump, said the former president made a “strong case” for his economic policy message, which includes reducing regulations, cutting taxes, strengthening borders and eliminating foreign constraints.
“In contrast,” he said, “Harris delivered rehearsed, canned platitudes and was unable to justify her administration’s failures on inflation, immigration and foreign policy.”
Taylor Swift’s support for Harris after the debate also contributed to the chaos of the evening. The pop star posted on Instagram that she supports Harris because “she fights for the rights and causes that I believe need a fighter to represent them.”
Swift has 283 million followers on Instagram, far more than the number of people who voted in the 2020 election.
In an early morning phone call with Fox and Friends, Trump again defended his performance in the debate and predicted Swift would regret her support.
“I’m not a Taylor Swift fan,” he said, adding, “She’ll probably pay a price for that in the market.”
