(CNN) – Former President Donald Trump is hesitant about a second debate with Kamala Harris after his failure in the first confrontation prompted his team and conservative allies in the media to mount a frantic damage control operation.
It’s too early to say whether the showdown in Philadelphia substantially changed the presidential race, as Harris pleads with remaining swing voters in swing states to abandon the chaos of the Trump era. But after this Tuesday’s debate, both campaigns are analyzing the impact of a critical confrontation before more than 60 million viewers eight weeks before election day.
Trump, who made multiple campaign returns after President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in the debate at the end of June, found himself facing the type of inquiry that his former rival suffered. Although the former president’s campaign will not suffer the same fate as Biden’s closed re-election campaign, the debate was the latest sign that Trump continues not to focus on the new challenges posed by Harris and without presenting his best arguments.
The vice president is enjoying a new boost of euphoria among Democrats who see an often dubious political figure growing in stature with each test she passes. Harris’ campaign is also taking advantage of the support of Taylor Swift, which could open a new vein of interest among the pop megastar’s loyal followers.
And her allies are reinforcing the tone of mockery and attempts to provoke Trump that emerged at the Democratic National Convention and that the vice president brought to the debate. Philippe Reines, a former Hillary Clinton aide who played Trump in Harris’ debate prep, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that the former president has slowed down mentally since 2016 and compared him to a “malfunctioning appliance.” .
“It was messy but, to some extent, structured,” Reines said, referring to Trump confronting former Secretary of State Clinton. “Now, it’s messy.” And he added: “I think he’s losing (his) train of thought about it and just blurting out what’s on his mind.”
Polls and opinions on who won the presidential debate in the United States
Hours after the debate, the political climate calmed briefly as Harris and Trump, along with Biden and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, gathered at Ground Zero in New York to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. 2001. The general election rivals had only met for the first time in the debate, but they shared their second handshake in 12 hours in a gesture of national unity orchestrated by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
In a more light-hearted scene Wednesday, a smiling Biden took the extraordinary step of donning a Trump 2024 baseball cap. White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the president gave a cap to a Trump supporter during a visit to a fire station in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, near where the fourth hijacked plane crashed near its target on 9/11 after a passenger riot. The Trump supporter had said that “in the same spirit, POTUS should put on his Trump hat.” He put it on briefly,” Bates said.
But it was only a temporary respite from the bitter consequences of the debate.
The former president did what he always does when presented with unfavorable political facts: deny them. This Wednesday he declared on Fox News that he had had “one of my best debates,” despite negative criticism of his performance. Trump also attacked ABC News, claiming the debate was “rigged” and blaming fact-checking moderators for forming a “three-on-one” team against him.
But one of his most recent associates, former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., may have inadvertently highlighted Trump’s shortcomings in the debate, even as he tried to praise the former president, whom he recently endorsed.
Kennedy said on Fox News that while Trump won the debate on “substance,” Harris “clearly won the debate in terms of her delivery, her polish, her organization and her preparation.”
“I think in substance, President Trump wins in terms of his administration,” Kennedy said. “But he didn’t tell that story.”
Still, Trump’s complaints were picked up more enthusiastically among his longtime defenders in conservative media, underscoring the way the Republican Party always falls in line behind its leader. However, Trump’s account that he was thwarted by two television hosts fit poorly with his onstage claim that he is such an intimidating figure that America’s enemies were simply afraid of him.
Trump was correct in arguing that the moderators subjected him to more scrutiny than Harris on Tuesday night and that they missed several opportunities to correct the vice president or hold her accountable for dodging questions. But Harris said nothing compared to the former president’s torrent of falsehoods, which included the claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing and eating residents’ dogs and cats (that racist claim was debunked Wednesday by the Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine).
The difficult political context explains why the situation remains tense at Harris’ headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. A senior campaign official told CNN’s MJ Lee that the election was assumed to remain 50-50. “It will be incredibly close. “We can’t take our foot off the accelerator, even when the moment seems really good,” the advisor said.
Harris also faces decisions beyond whether she will accept another debate. While his performance was stylistically strong Tuesday, he dodged key questions—for example, the first about whether he believes Americans are better off now or when Trump was in office. The Trump campaign will not stop complaining that the candidate is avoiding media scrutiny. And there are plenty of signs that voters want more substance from the Democratic nominee.
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Several undecided voters leaning toward Harris or Trump but open to switching candidates told CNN’s John King that Harris did well in the debate, but several also cautioned that she was not specific enough in explaining her policies.
“Kamala Harris says she wants to lift up the middle class, but how?” said Linda Rooney, who lives in suburban Philadelphia and voted for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the primary. She also expressed concern about Harris’ changing stance on fracking and other issues.
Those doubts are also evident in the latest national surveys. But they also reflect the new complications Trump has caused for himself with his disappointing debate performance: He may have squandered his best and last chance to expose Harris’ vulnerabilities to tens of millions of voters.
