Trump Lost the Debate (and it doesn’t matter)

The first and possibly only Trump-Harris debate has come and gone, and while it definitely had its share of crazy moments that stole the headlines, in the end most political pundits saw it as a clear victory for Harris.

The exception to that opinion would, of course, be in Trump World, where Donald Trump is viewed as the obvious winner – demonstrating once again that Trump can simply do no wrong in the pro-Trump media bubble.

Here are a few of the many reasons that Trump lost the debate, and in my opinion, why Harris winning the debate probably won’t even matter come November.

1) Harris immediately walked over to shake Trump’s hand

I thought this was a strong and classy move by Harris, especially since it was obvious that Trump was NOT going to meet her halfway to shake her hand.

It made her seem to be more likable and more mature than Trump, and once she walked over to his podium, Harris left Trump no option BUT to shake her hand.

2) Harris sounded nervous at first but soon recovered

Harris was clearly nervous at times, especially at the beginning, but she did sound better as the night went on. For his part, Trump seemed pretty calm to start out, although that soon changed as Harris started to provoke him.

3) Harris constantly looked at Trump, who did not look back

Harris spent a good part of the night staring at Trump, as if to confront him, but Trump hardly ever looked back at her other than a few side glances out of the corner of his eyes. If Trump’s advisors told him to not look at her, it was a big mistake.

4) Harris got away with avoiding answering several questions

On questions dealing with the Afghanistan withdraw, illegal immigration and the economy, Harris said a lot but didn’t actually give specific answers. The moderators failed at following up and pressing her to answer the question.

Trump, however, had ample opportunities to point this out, but was simply unable to do so because of he could not focus. He would start to hold her to account, but then meander into a different subject that had nothing to do with the original question.

5) Trump’s wandering mind

Speaking of meandering, it seemed as if at least half of Trump’s answers would have only the first sentence or two be on topic, and then stray into other subjects. He was simply unable to focus on the question, and kept interrupting himself mid-sentence.

Trump reportedly had prepared for this debate more than the one with Biden, but it didn’t seem that way. If anything, his lack of preparation seemed painfully obvious at times. He simply sounded as if he wasn’t ready to debate Harris.

6) Abdul and Concepts of a Plan

In defending his deal with the Taliban back in 2020, in which 5,000 Taliban soldiers were released, Trump confused the leader of the Taliban with the person that the US was negotiating with at the time.

When asked if he had a healthcare plan, Trump said he had “concepts of a plan” which we would hear about in the future. Saying that you have concepts of a plan is, of course, the same thing as saying that you have no plan.

7) Viktor Orbán is a reason Trump should be reelected

As even Trump has said on numerous occasions, Viktor Orbán is viewed as a strongman, almost as a dictator. And yet Trump repeatedly references how Orbán believes Trump needs to return to power.

This is yet more evidence that Trump not only has an affinity for the strongman type of leader all around the world, but that he doesn’t care who or what a person is, only that he is praised by them.

8) Harris hits Trump’s sore spot: crowd size

At one point Harris brought up the fact that people who attended Trump’s rallies often left early, which clearly irritated Trump. This has been a sore spot for Trump ever since his 2017 inauguration.

After Trump said that isn’t happening, however, Harris also missed an opportunity to point out that there are many online videos showing how people often leave Trump’s rallies early.

9) They’re eating your pets

If there was one thing I was wrong about before the debate, it was that I thought Trump couldn’t say anything more outrageous that he had before. Was I ever wrong.

So, here is why Trump brought this up at the debate. The original claim was about how Haitian immigrants were eating cats and ducks, and that idea was formed out of two different events.

First, in Springfield, Ohio, there WAS a local police report about Haitians carrying 4 geese, which they had apparently taken from a local park. There is not video of this incident, but someone had called into the police and reported it.

Second and separately, there WAS video of an obviously deranged woman killing and eating a cat back in mid-August. She, however, was in Canton, Ohio, which is nearly 200 miles away from Springfield, Ohio.

That woman was not connected to the Haitian community in Springfield. These are two separate stories out of two different towns which are a good distance away from each other.

However, a number of videos began to appear on YouTube and other social media showing the woman in Canton being arrested by police, but making it seem as if she was in Springfield, and being arrested by the Springfield police.

Soon, these misleading videos on social media led to several residents at a Springfield board meeting to incorrectly claim that Haitians were kidnapping and eating pets in Springfield.

All of this then led the Springfield police to release a statement saying that there are NO credible reports about the Haitian community taking and eating any pets. Their use of the word “credible” was a nice way of saying that some of the town’s residents were falling for rumors on the internet.

For his part, Trump messed up this conspiracy theory, as instead of saying that ducks and cats were being eaten by Haitian immigrants, he started talking about dogs being eaten.

This was curious departure for Trump, because not only is he not a fan of pets in general, but he has a known history of insulting others by calling them dogs. So where did Trump come up with the “Haitians eating your pets” idea? Axios may have summed this up the best:

“For a guy who made ‘fake news’ a household term, he falls for it often and easily. It wasn’t hard to learn that the allegations of Haitians eating pet dogs and cats were silly and wrong. But far-right activist Laura Loomer was on the plane ride to the debate with him, egging him on.” – Axios

Note also that after Trump said this, the moderator fact checked him, and Trump stated that he saw it on TV. So between something he saw on TV, and the influence of far-right activists such as Laura Loomer, it apparently just spilled out of Trump’s brain during the debate.

Trump even doubled-down on what he said on Truth Social, posting absurd images from his supporters that made him look like a champion of pet owners – again, a guy who is not known for being pet friendly.

But on Truth Social, Trump also posted a link to the story about the woman in Canton, who had eaten a cat, apparently unaware that it was not related to Springfield. Or, perhaps he knew and just didn’t care.

But Trump’s willingness to cast truth to the ground does, sadly, work on some people, as this comment on a recent video of mine demonstrates.

10) Trump finally says what he needs to … with a minute to go

In his closing statement, Trump finally said something that he should have said a dozen times during the debate.

“She’s gonna do all these wonderful things. Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for three-and-a-half years. They’ve had three-and-a-half years to fix the border. They’ve had three-and-a-half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn’t she done it?”

But this was simply too late to make what was arguably his best point. If he would have said this several times during the debate, and looked at her while saying it, it would have had a far greater impact.

In the aftermath of the debate, Trump claimed that the moderators fact checked him because of their bias, even stating that ABC should be shut down because of it.

“I think ABC took a big hit last night. To be honest, they’re a news organization – they have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

This statement of Trump’s hasn’t received a lot of attention, but it should be taken seriously. Trump has said many, many times of his intentions of going after his perceived enemies, and as his love of strongmen around the world shows, the free press could be his number one target.

Everyone knows that Donald Trump has an exceptionally strong and devoted base. These people simply will NOT abandon him for any reason. Likewise, many of those who oppose Trump will also NOT support him for any reason.

In reality, Harris clearly won the debate. In Trump world, however, Trump again dominated. But neither of these views even matter. The debate wasn’t for these two groups: it was for the undecided and independent voter.

Those undecided and independent voters may or may not have been swayed to support Harris after the debate, but even if they were, it’s not enough to give Harris a landslide victory.

Because the truth is that if Trump loses, the only way he ISN’T going to claim it was stolen from him if it’s a blowout for Harris. And we all know that’s NOT going to happen.

In fact, this race is still very much a coin flip, and that’s unlikely to change very much even after the debate, because of how polarized the country is.

But a race that is a coin-flip still favors Trump, because even if he loses, it’s obvious that he’s going to scream from the rooftop that the election was stolen from him.

And MAGA republicans in Congress and at the state level have been planning for exactly that scenario, and have contingency plans to find a way for Trump to be declared the winner.

Even if Harris does beat Trump in November, it will only be the beginning of the fight to stop Trump and his surrogates from using every available means to get him into the White House anyway.

Trump and his MAGA crowd will NOT go quietly into that good night. ♦