There were two reasons why the MSM spun Kamala Harris as the winner of Tuesday’s debate:
The first was to try and demoralize Trump voters who might have missed the debate.
The second was to make any steal credible. This is actually why Joe Biden had to go. For people to go along with the steal of the election as they did last time, it has to be at least plausible and it simply wasn’t plausible with Joe Biden in the state he is in.
And while I saw some evidence of the former from people who did not see that debate alas that pesky reality keeps getting in the way, because a lot of people did see it:
The Nielsen figures show that 58 million people tuned in for the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, roughly 6.5 million more than who watched the debate between Biden and Trump, which likely led to the former’s decision to drop from the race. According to Axios, the viewership numbers for Tuesday may rise about 60 million “once Nielsen finishes a more comprehensive tally.”
“The highest-rated game in the NFL’s opening week averaged 29 million viewers. The debate roughly doubled that. Americans are tuned in to this election, especially now that Harris has replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket,” noted Axios.
And those who got their first taste of Kamala didn’t move people on issues that matter to them
Debate watchers also gave Trump a 23-point advantage over Harris when it came to whom they trusted to handle immigration and a 6-point edge on handling the role of commander in chief.
That seems to match what some of those CBS voters were saying, with one talking about Trump’s effective closing statement— if Harris was going to do things, why hasn’t she done any of them now, while she’s in office?
Remember this is AFTER watching the debate.
Then there is the Reuters stuff that I mentioned yesterday that’s worth repeating with a little more detail:
Reuters interviewed 10 people who were still unsure how they were going to vote in the Nov. 5 election before they watched the debate. Six said afterward they would now either vote for Trump or were leaning toward backing him. Three said they would now back Harris and one was still unsure how he would vote.
Harris and Trump are in a tight race and the election will likely be decided by just tens of thousands of votes in a handful of battleground states, many of whom are swing voters like the undecided voters who spoke to Reuters.
Although the sample size was small, the responses suggested Harris might need to provide more detailed policy proposals to win over voters who have yet to make up their minds.
Five said they found Harris vague during the more than 90-minute debate on how she would improve the U.S. economy and deal with the high cost of living, a top concern for voters.
The encounter was particularly important for Harris, with a weekend New York Times/Siena College opinion poll showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not know enough about her, in contrast to the well-known Trump.
The Trump converts said they trusted him more on the economy, even though all said they did not like him as a person. They said their personal financial situation had been better when he was president between 2017-2021. Some singled out his proposal to tax foreign imports, although economists say that is likely to raise prices.
And then of course there is C-SPAN not knows as a Trump Bastion:
But to me the real tell was after the debate, and Sarah Hoyt nails it brilliantly:
Last night in the PJM liveblogging, it was taken as fact that Kamala was winning because her team was already demanding another debate. This didn’t make much sense, except under “oh, she wants to rub his face on it” maybe. But even so–
It wasn’t till this morning the full stupid of this hit me.
So, Kamala managed not to Biden it on stage. Great.
And yes, she, personally, might be stupid enough not to realize how much help she had from the mods and likely from her little friend in her ear. And think it would be fun to do it again.
But Que Mala’s team isn’t Que Mala. I suspect they treat her about like Biden’s team treated him. And they’re the same people.
They know she’s not that great. And they know that in the primaries in 16 she imploded in the debates. They’ve been carefully keeping her away from any opportunities to interact with press or even the public. And please keep in mind they allowed BIDEN to mingle. So, this is their estimation of her intellect and ability.
And yet, despite a supposedly HUGE bump from the debate in the polls, a bump such as puts her out of reach…. She’s asking for another debate, and apparently pressing the point.
People! I raised children. The kid who follows the other going “I demand a rematch!” is not the winner. Ever.
Period.
You can tell she writes books for a living can’t you? As for Trump:
At the same time, regardless of what Nancy Grey Goose Pelosi says, you know Trump is not a coward. Heck, we have photo evidence of it. If Kamala really were that far ahead in the polls from the debate, Trump’s team and frankly Trump would want a rematch. Also, Trump, right? He’d be spoiling for a fight, going “I demand a rematch” even if his team were trying to hold him back. Say what you will of him, if he ran from a fight he wouldn’t have thrown his hat in the ring this year, despite everything they’ve thrown at him. Or he’d have quit after the failed assassination attempt. And his ego is big enough if he had bombed, he’d want to show how great he really was. And again, his team would really just have to get out of the way.
Instead Trump is saying “Only on Fox and with my chosen moderators.” I.e. he’s putting CONDITIONS on it.
Guys?
This is not how a loser acts.
In fact, the roles are reversed and require not just that Kamala be brutally stupid, (which I’ll buy) but that her entire team also be too stupid to remember to breathe out after breathing in. And it breaks character for Trump.
Finally there is this from the NEW YORK FRIGGEN TIMES:
But not all voters, especially those undecided few who could sway the election, were effusive about the vice president’s performance.
In interviews, these undecided voters acknowledged that Harris seemed more presidential than Trump. And they said she laid out a sweeping vision to fix some of the country’s most stubborn problems.
But they also said she did not seem much different from Biden, and they wanted change.
And most of all, what they wanted to hear — and didn’t — was the fine print.
Frank Luntz actually said with the straight face that Trump lost the election on Tuesday, I’m sure that will keep him in good standing with the media he depends on but as I said on Tuesday, reality doesn’t care.
