Republicans Scramble to Spin Trump’s Debate Implosion

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·4 min read
2

Donald Trump imploded on the debate stage against Kamala Harris on Tuesday night. The former president fell for obvious bait presented by the vice president, delivered a series of angry diatribes in the style of his rallies, and told lies that repeatedly forced ABC News’ moderators to fact-check him in real-time.

Right-wing lawmakers and commentators are offering a menu of excuses to minimize the damage. In the post-debate spin room and on social media, the former president’s allies are floating everything from moderator bias, to conspiracies about hidden earpieces, to claims that debates don’t actually matter.

The immediate target of the right’s ire were ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.

Trump himself claimed that the two hosts had unfairly ganged up on him — when really they were just fact-checking some of his most absurd claims. In one instance, Muir debunked an outburst by Trump in which he accused undocumented migrants of killing and eating people’s pets. During another exchange, the moderators pushed back on Trump’s contention that Democrats support executing infants shortly after birth.

“It was three against one,” Trump complained after leaving the stage.

The grievance was echoed by right-wing influencers and commentators.

Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair, also described the debate as “three on one.”

The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro wrote on X — formerly Twitter — that “ABC’s moderators are a disgrace to their profession.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham wrote that “the moderators might as well be on the DNC payroll. This is ridiculous. This is the worst moderated debate in history.”

“This is not a debate, this is public show trial where the judge, jury, and executioner is ABC News,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk raged.

Other pro-Trump accounts began tweeting a conspiracy suggesting that Harris’s earrings were secret earpieces that allowed her to be fed answers by her staff. A quick side-by-side view of the advertised earpieces and the jewelry worn by Harris shows that they bear only the vaguest of resemblances.

There were also plenty who just went ahead and said Trump performed better than Harris. Jesse Watters argued on Fox News that Trump had actually won the debate because his “memorable” lines would dominate the conversation. If “you’re a Republican, you look at this and you’re like ‘That’s Donald Trump,’” he said.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote on X that Trump delivered a “strong debate victory” and a “powerful America First message.” She also called the moderators “pro-Kamala activists who baselessly attacked President Trump.”

Perhaps the most insane attempt to draw attention away from Trump’s poor showing came from Elon Musk, who responded to a Tuesday night endorsement of Harris by Taylor Swift by making a deranged offer to the pop superstar.

“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” he wrote.

But even Musk had to acknowledge Harris performed well. “While I don’t think the debate hosts were fair to @realDonaldTrump, @KamalaHarris exceeded most people’s expectations tonight,” he added.

Fox News’ Brit Hume also acknowledged that Harris was not the bumbling caricature created by right-wing media.

This is a “different person from the person she was in the interview of CNN, but a different person from the absolute dunderhead so many of us thought she was during her conduct as vice president” he said.

“She was prepared. She kept her cool. She saw advantages and took them. She baited him successfully, which is the story of the debate in my view. So she came out ahead in this, in my opinion, no doubt,” Hume added.

More from Rolling Stone

Best of Rolling Stone

Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next