Kamala Harris had no intention of stopping at her podium.
As Harris and former President Donald Trump walked on stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night for their first presidential debate, the vice president strolled past her podium and over to Trump, confidently initiating a handshake and greeting him.
“Let’s have a good debate,” Harris said.
“Good luck,” Trump responded before Harris returned to her podium.
It was a move to assert dominance that, in the past, Trump himself would regularly use.
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Harris going on the offensive in that initial exchange was emblematic of much of the ensuing 90 minutes, which ultimately ended up being a stunning juxtaposition to the first presidential debate in June that saw Trump victorious over Joe Biden to the degree that the president dropped out of the race.
The debate amounted to a missed opportunity for many Trump allies, who hoped that a solid performance would turn the page on Harris' "honeymoon" period.
Debates roughly two months apart have had drastically different outcomes for Trump, leaving some of his supporters concerned that his most recent performance could leave him spiraling, while others defended his performance.
“Kamala had the burden of convincing voters she could turn around an economy that is failing due to her tie-breaking votes in the Senate,” said Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a longtime Trump ally who helped him with debate preparations. “She failed to meet the moment, with President Trump effectively reflecting the economic anxieties off Americans.”
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“Kamala’s joy doesn’t pay the grocery bills,” he added. “President Trump showed he’s determined to fix what she has broken.”
There was, however, concern even among some who support Trump that his lackluster performance less than two months ahead of Election Day is a self-inflicted wound.
“I know everyone in the world has said this, but the inability or unwillingness to realize when he’s being baited and not fall for it is constantly baffling,” a longtime Republican operative said.
Others inside Trump’s debate camp, who were granted anonymity to speak freely, said that they agree the performance was lackluster, and at times Harris caught him flat-footed, but they were skeptical that during an election cycle in which both sides are already entrenched in their positions that this debate could move many votes.
“It was not his best performance, without question,” one Trump adviser said. “But he did enough to get out, I think, without really losing any votes. Like everything else, the debate will have a short shelf life. People will move on to what’s next.”
Trump has taken part in 18 debates over his three runs for president, making him among the most experienced debate participants in American political history. In nearly all those contests, Trump was a tour de force, using his hyperaggressive style and willingness to flood the zone with lies to take up most of the oxygen in the room and overshadow his opponents.
“This guy does not play by the rules, which means then he has more options, and when someone has more options, he’s a more challenging person to debate,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC before the debate began. “So, I’m not suggesting this is not only high stakes, this is a huge challenge.”
This time, however, those Trump axioms did not play out against Harris, who throughout the night baited the former president into focusing on the sort of grievances — like the size of the crowds at his rallies — that he has long fixated on, and conspiratorial falsehoods — like Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating family pets — that Trump advisers hoped he would avoid in order to focus on a Harris record that is replete with policy position changes.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said during an answer related to immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
In a brief appearance in the spin room after the debate, Trump doubled down on the debunked story, which was started by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and has been rebutted by local officials.
In that same exchange with reporters, Trump said it was his “best debate ever.”
The perception that Trump lost the debate was so overwhelming that even some of his staunchest cheerleaders were unable to spin the performance in its immediate aftermath.
“While I don’t think the debate hosts were fair to @RealDonaldTrump @KamalaHarris exceeded most people’s expectations tonight,” Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X on Tuesday night.
Not only has Musk endorsed Trump, but he is also funding a pro-Trump super PAC.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Harris “moved the points a little bit on betting markets,” while three other Republican sources told NBC News that Trump came off as “angry” as Harris pushed his buttons and got him going off on tangents after questions about some of his key policy areas.
Christopher Rufo, a right-wing education reformer and prominent conservative activist, said Harris won the night.
“Harris wins slightly on points,” he posted on social media. “This shouldn’t change the race significantly either way, but she was able to de-risk this event and now the Right has lost the narrative that Harris is refusing media or engagement. Will be interesting to see if she goes silent again.”
Blaming ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis did become a common theme for Trump supporters looking to try to put a positive spin on the night’s events. On a handful of occasions, the pair fact-checked Trump in real time, something his supporters said was evidence of bias — especially because they did it noticeably less for Harris. She brought far fewer falsehoods to the debate.
“I’m still perplexed why any Republican candidate for president submits themselves to activist moderators who are driven to integers and undermine any conservative Republican in any debate,” said Ed McMullen, a South Carolina-based Trump fundraiser who served as ambassador to Switzerland during Trump’s first term in office.
He said there should have been less of a focus on abortion, which has been a key issue after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and has, so far, been an issue that has benefited Democrats politically.
“People are suffering in this economy and left and right politicos want to talk about abortion,” McMullen said. “The states now have the responsibility to act — get it over with. Time to move on and face the issues that real people are affected by every day."
Others were critical specifically of the debate moderators' failure to focus enough on Harris’ own background, which includes her own 2020 run for president where she staked out several positions in the Democratic primary that are now seen as far left in a general election.
Those positions, many of which were outlined in recent CNN reporting about an American Civil Liberties Union candidate questionnaire that Harris filed out at the time, include saying that she supported using taxpayer dollars to pay for gender transition surgeries for immigrants in federal prison.
“It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition,” Harris wrote. “That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates.”
It became a much-discussed topic of conversation among Trump supporters.
“Do you think it’s strange that someone could support something as radical as sex change operations paid for by taxpayers for convicts and illegal immigrants … and not get asked a question about it?” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Trump in a post-debate interview.
“I brought it up,” Trump responded. “They were not 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 message, which includes reducing regulations, cutting taxes, strengthening the border and ending foreign wards.
“In contrast,” he said. “Harris provided canned and rehearsed platitudes unable to defend her administration's failures around inflation, immigration and foreign policy.”
Adding to the chaos of the night was a post-debate endorsement of Harris from Taylor Swift. The pop star posted on Instagram that she is endorsing Harris because “she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion 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 call-in to "Fox and Friends," Trump once again defended his debate performance and predicted Swift would regret her endorsement.
“I am not a Taylor Swift fan, he said, adding, "She will probably pay a price for it in the market."
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