The media is all in this morning declaring Kamala Harris the winner of Tuesday night’s presidential debate, as we predicted they would.
Former President Donald Trump had to deal not only with Harris but bad moderators with questions that seemed designed to help her while not fact-checking her on any of the lies that she told throughout the night. There were areas he could have hit more, but he also was having to deal with all the hoaxes, and the moderators didn’t call her out for anything. That’s disgraceful. Megyn Kelly and many others on the right called out the bias. Even Democratic strategist Doug Schoen criticized the bias.
So the big question was: Were the voters able to sift through all the propaganda that was being leveled at them and see the light to the truth? The CBS Pennsylvania focus group was interesting, and some of them clearly saw through the bull.
There’s also an interesting question of how many people are seeing the debate and how much of an impact it has. The media declared Hillary Clinton the winner in the two debates in 2016, and she was ahead in the polls. How did that work out for her?
I always question polls, whether they support what I want or they are against it, and we’ll have to see where they go after this. The CNN flash poll said people thought she “performed better.” Performance is perhaps the right word. Yet, Trump was still holding the “advantage” on the most important issues to the public: “the economy, immigration and being commander in chief.” Harris was more trusted on abortion and protecting democracy.
“The vast majority who tuned in said it had no effect on their presidential decision,” CNN said.
The poll showed that Trump did make the most important point that he needed to make to the voters — that he’s better on the economy — by 20 points. He also was up on the other most important issues, the border and leadership.
A CNN poll finds that most debate watchers — 55 % to 35% — say President Trump would better handle the economy than Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/NgnIl5Okti
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) September 11, 2024
But voters who tuned in gave Trump a 20-point advantage over Harris after the debate on handling the economy, 55% to 35% – a margin that’s slightly wider than his pre-debate edge.
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? That’s likely why she is saying she wants another debate. She’s lost ground on the most important numbers, even if she’s declared the “winner” of the debate.
