Donald Trump had three opponents onstage Tuesday at the presidential debate in Philadelphia — at least, that’s what his campaign would have you believe.
Before the two candidates had finished their closing statements in front of the ABC moderators, there was already murmuring in the so-called “spin room” that the Republican candidate would demand another try. It was a sign of the battering he took from his opponent on issues like abortion rights, January 6, and his penchant for personal attacks and showmanship over substance.
As the surrogates for Trump and Harris filed in, it became clear that a familiar song-and-dance was going to play out, with Republicans attacking the media for conducting fact-checks during the debate. But it seemed as if even the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee (RNC) officials present knew that the narrative of the night was going to be about their candidate’s inability to land any serious policy-related hits.
Before the cameras arrived, the Trump campaign had announced that his running mate JD Vance would serve as their top surrogate for the evening. That ended up being thrown to the wayside: Vance spoke to reporters for a few minutes before hopping on TV for an interview, only to be overshadowed minutes later by the arrival of Trump himself.
Candidates themselves almost never emerge in the spin rooms, with the exception of primary debates. But Trump gaggled with journalists for about 20 minutes before disappearing behind the curtains, flanked by rifle-bearing security.
In that gaggle occurred possibly one of the most stunning moments of the campaign — after defending his performance, Trump came face-to-face with New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam, none other than a member of the “Central Park Five” whom the former president called to be executed for crimes they were later exonerated of committing. Reporters asked Trump if he would apologize to Salaam. He did not, instead turning away laughing after quipping that Salaam was “on my side”, which the bemused Salaam denied.
Vance, meanwhile, was sticking to the message clearly blasted out to the Trump team as the debate unfolded: attack, attack, attack — and blame the moderators for their candidate’s performance.
The Ohio senator sparred with reporters for several minutes over the issue of whether Haitian-born immigrants living in an Ohio town after being granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) were “eating” cats and dogs owned by local residents. It was a claim that ABC’s moderators noted they could find no evidence to support on Tuesday.
He wasn’t the only one who was clearly panicking. Stephen Miller, famous for his role as the architect of Trump’s first-term immigration policy, took things a step further and had to force himself to walk away from a conversation with a Hispanic reporter after raising his voice repeatedly and yelling angrily that Kamala Harris was responsible for a supposed epidemic of child rape (one that is wholly imaginary) which he then blamed on immigrants.
“Why are you yelling at me?” the reporter asked Miller, who near-screamed at the man and asked him if he had any “remorse” for children who were supposedly being murdered and raped.
Vivek Ramaswamy, one of Trump’s two former opponents-turned-allies who showed up to the debate, echoed some of Miller’s anger as he lambasted ABC’s David Muir for “setting [Harris] up with softball questions”.
Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign official recently added to the team after serving on Trump’s 2020 squad, took a bit of a calmer approach. He said after ABC’s program ended that another debate on Fox News “should have already happened” and indicated that he thought the campaign would continue pushing for more.
But he, like other Republicans, also eviscerated the moderators for only jumping in to make corrections when Trump said something that was obviously false. Harris, he said, “took the bait” from moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, and allowed them to “cover for her” during the program.
Harris was allowed to “continue to not answer for essentially [running] the most dishonest campaign you’ve ever seen in 20 years of public service”.
He and the RNC’s Brian Hughes both claimed to The Independent that Trump had been successful in staying on message; Hughes also rejected the idea that Black women would be turned off by Trump’s answer about why he was comfortable speaking about Harris’s racial identity.
There was one (former) Trump campaign official present in the room who did not share that assessment. Anthony Scaramucci, known as Trump’s shortest-serving director of communications in the White House, gave the president a grade of two or three points out of ten, compared to an eight for his opponent. He said those scores were essentially a direct reversal of the two candidates’ performances at the June debate between Trump and Joe Biden.
“I saw a guy that was out of his element. I saw a guy that was not prepared for [Harris]. She was very well-prepared. She had a very good narrative to tell. She had an expansive idea of where she wants to go with the country. He wasn’t prepared for that. So he was going to certain dogwhistles that he uses,” said Scaramucci.
He also opined on possibly the biggest headline of the evening: Pop star Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris, and the effect her support would have on an election he said would be largely focused on turnout rather than convincing undecided voters.
“The Taylor Swift thing on the margin is beneficial because it creates momentum. And one thing that Taylor Swift is very good at is bringing out the registrations,” he explained.
Republicans, who have been anticipating the Swifie-verse siding with Kamala Harris since back when Biden was at the top of the ticket, did not act surprised but offered little response.
“No, I’m not a teeny-bopper,” Hughes joked when asked for his opinion on it.
Harris’s surrogates, who included a list of swing-state governors including Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom, Roy Cooper and Michelle Lujan Grisham, were all evoking satisfied confidence in where the race stood after the dust settled.
“There was only one commander-in-chief onstage tonight,” Newsom declared after the debate. “It was a terrible night for Donald Trump… and a great night for our democracy.”