Even the hosts of the infamously Trump-allied morning show Fox & Friends don’t exactly seem enthused about President Donald Trump’s petulant behavior at the Tuesday night presidential debate. Throughout the debate, Trump close to endlessly interrupted Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and the president even harassed the moderator, Fox host Chris Wallace. He seemed pathologically unhinged. On Wednesday morning, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy compared the spectacle to a disappointing meal. Fellow co-host Brian Kilmeade was a little less whimsical — he said that the American people “were the big losers last night.” Remarkably enough — he might be right!
Doocy began:
‘You know how you really look forward to Friday night, and you plan on going to your favorite restaurant, and you get there after a week of anticipation and it’s like ‘Hmm, that was just okay.’ I think a lot of people today are frustrated because we thought, on this, the post-game show, we’d have a winner or we would know somebody who landed a knockout punch. We didn’t see that.’
Well, CNN did conduct a poll of debate-watchers, and they found that 60 percent of respondents felt like Biden had “won” the debate. Only 28 percent of the respondents said that they felt Trump won. If even the Fox & Friends hosts are metaphorically wringing their hands over the president’s spectacle, then it’s clear that something’s wrong.
CNN POLL: Who won the debate? pic.twitter.com/qKwF6uT68e
— Lily Adams (@adamslily) September 30, 2020
After Doocy’s comments, fellow co-host Ainsley Earhardt commented:
‘When we were walking into work this morning, everyone was just shaking their heads, because punches were thrown, it got a little nasty… But I don’t think any minds were changed after watching last night, there weren’t any big zingers.’
The Trump campaign is running behind Biden by 7.1 percent in the FiveThirtyEight average of national-level polls as of Wednesday afternoon, so the Trump campaign could definitely have used a boost! Trump’s petulant spectacle did not seem to provide them with one, although national-level polls conducted entirely after the debate have yet to come in, as of early the following afternoon.
After Earhardt, Kilmeade spoke. He commented:
‘I think we were the big losers last night, meaning the American people… If you’re gonna say that President Trump was rude, there was only one person who called the other one a clown, a racist, the worst president ever, and told [the other one] to shut up, and that was Joe Biden… but Donald Trump blew the biggest layup in the history of debates by saying, not condemning white supremacists. I don’t know if he didn’t hear it, but he’s got to clarify that right away. That’s like ‘Are you against evil?’ Why the president didn’t just knock that out of the park I’m not sure.’
Watch the Fox & Friends segment below:
Fox & Friends' immediate debate takes — disappointed about no "knockout punch," "when we were walking into work this morning everyone was just shaking their heads," and "we were the big losers last night, meaning the American people." pic.twitter.com/Xc2yx6MGKJ
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 30, 2020
During the debate, Trump was faced with the question of whether or not he would condemn white supremacists like the violent group known as the Proud Boys. He said that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by,” which many, including members of the group itself, took as a de facto call to readiness for violence.
Proud Boys celebrated Trump's debate callout: On their account on Telegram, the Proud Boys appeared to take the statement as marching orders. Another social media account for the group made "Stand back. Stand by" part of its new logo. https://t.co/K1lvZZTCYt
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 30, 2020
