On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump met for their first debate of this year’s presidential race as the general election approaches with the two of them the Democratic and Republican nominees, respectively.
Characteristically, Trump wheeled out conspiracy theories, even bringing up totally unsupported claims of certain immigrants to the U.S…. eating pets. (There’s zero real-world supporting evidence.) Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is known as outspoken on behalf of Democratic causes, was among those blasting Trump.
“Substance over bluster. Optimism over negativity. And yes, a new generation over the same, old, tired show. She crushed it tonight,” Buttigieg wrote on X, the social platform formerly called Twitter.
Trump — potentially feeling pressure from his debate performance — is now throwing cold water on the idea of participating in any more debates with Harris at all, characteristically insisting that he’s the one who crushed it.
“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, “I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!” Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?” he posted on Wednesday.
If he was referring to polls of the general election pitting Trump against Harris, his insistence that he is winning across the board is incorrect. And if he’s talking about polls asking respondents who they thought won the debate, then perceptions of who won a debate don’t actually have any direct bearing on the outcome of an election — as is the case for themed boat parades, big campaign rallies, or floods of social media posts.
Trump reversed his position on further debates after this one, previously talking about wanting to have multiple face-offs with Harris.
