Democrats and liberal media outlets predictably declared Kamala Harris the winner in Tuesday night’s presidential debate against Donald Trump.
That opinion was seconded by many Republicans and conservatives, too, who were equally shocked at the blatant bias of ABC News moderators and surprised at Trump for failing to fight back.
In a Fox News panel after the debate, voters said Harris was the night's winner.
It was a far different scene from late June, when President Joe Biden looked weak, angry and unprepared against Trump, the former president and current Republican challenger.
Less than a month later, after top Democrats panicked about losing the White House, Biden announced his exit from the race in social media posts.
A shaky start, important first question
In a post-debate analysis Wednesday morning, American Family Radio host Jenna Ellis said the Harris campaign had the candidate “overprepared” to respond with talking points rather than to answer the moderators' questions. Trump, she told her audience, did not exploit that weakness.
Harris was shaky out of the gate, Ellis said, failing to answer moderator David Muir’s very first question about the economy.
“When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” Muir asked.
Harris responded with comments about a middle-class upbringing and plan to boost the middle class America through her “Opportunity Economy.” She talked about tax credits for families and small business owners, all of which actually gave examples of a poor economy, but Harris never answered the question of whether she believes Americans are better off.
Muir did not challenge Harris for her lack of response but instead shifted quickly to Trump.
It was a poor start for Harris, but she gained her footing quickly, Ellis said.
“She ended up appearing very poised throughout the rest of the debate. She was very calm,” Ellis said.
Political expert Dr. Charles Dunn, professor emeritus of government at Clemson University, tells AFN Harris "far exceeded" expectations during the debate while Trump appeared unprepared.
"She won the battle for expectations and he lost," Dunn says. "She prepared. He didn't."
Trump rambled, Harris dodged questions
If it wasn’t a gold-medal performance, it didn’t have to be because Trump remained on the defensive through the 90-minute debate.
“This was a bad debate for him because he allowed it to be a referendum on his administration and on his responses to not just COVID, but like the whole Jan. 6th narrative, even his recent comments on Kamala Harris's race. He got very defensive, and he allowed Kamala Harris to get under his skin,” Ellis said.
Trump, for a second-straight debate, avoided his trademark name-calling of the opponent but he didn’t avoid the occasional snarky comeback to Harris.
“The worst part of it was that he just rambled. She was overprepared in my opinion, to say things without saying anything, but he just kind of rambled,” Ellis said.
Harris escaped fact-check from moderators
It wasn’t only Harris who kept Trump on the defensive. Trump was fact-checked or clarified five times by Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis, The Washington Post reported.
Harris was not fact-checked by the moderators, or even mildly criticized for being loose with the facts, one time during night.
Muir and Davis repeatedly inserted themselves with their “so-called” fact-checking of Trump, Ellis said.
“At one point, David Muir actually tried to fact check Trump's intent and his tone of sarcasm. How do you fact-check somebody's tone?” Ellis asked.
Muir and Davis could have questioned Harris’ claim that Trump opposes in vitro fertilization, for example. That claim is untrue, and even laughable, considering Trump has proposed using federal dollars to pay for it.
The moderators gave Harris a pass.
“It was really three-on-one,” Ellis said, mirroring the views of many.
Ryan Saavedra, a Daily Wire reporter, analyzed the debate and concluded Trump was fact-checked four times and pressed six times by the moderators, while Harris was never fact-checked nor pressed on her claims.
Among the claims made by both candidates, Saavedra said Trump made 14 false statements and Harris made 16 on the debate stage.
After the debate, the X channel Maze posted a clip from the 2019 Democratic Party primary debate. On the debate stage, then-Sen. Harris laughingly acknowledged she intended to confiscate guns as president through an executive order. The moderator who asked her that question five years ago was Muir, the same ABC moderator who failed to press her once Tuesday night on the very same issue.
While Harris held an overall edge against Trump, the debate’s biggest losers were Muir and Davis, Ellis said.
“ABC and this debate was horrible," she told her audience. "I never thought I would say that I wish this had been on CNN, but I actually do because the last debate between Biden and Trump that was moderated by Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, nobody was talking about them except to say they did good.”
In this debate, Trump had one job, Ellis said.
“If I’m on his campaign, I would say that his one job was to show that Kamala Harris has been part of the Biden administration, that she and Biden together have failed to do in the last four years, everything she promised that she will do in the next four years,” Ellis said.
Instead, Harris was in rhythm. She showed confidence and effectively shifted the conversation, Ellis said.
A strong closer
Trump’s shining moment was his closing statement, Ellis said. In it Trump focused on the 3 ½ years of the Biden-Harris administration of failure at the border and failure to create jobs.
He pointed out that nothing has been done and that Harris, still in office, could make changes immediately.
"Why hasn't she done it? She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful White House, go to the Capitol, get everyone together and do the things you want to do. But you haven't done it. And you won't do it. Because you believe in things that the American people don't believe in,” Trump said.
“If the entire debate had been as strong as his closing statement he would have prevailed,” Ellis said.
That observation - and possible frustration - was mirrored by many others, such as Ben Shapiro, as the debate came to an end.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comments from Dr. Charles Dunn.
