Who won the debate? Kamala Harris ‘effective from the get-go’

By Michaela Walters (with Emily Maitlis & Jon Sopel)

It was the 90 minute long TV clash everyone had been waiting for, but who came out on top?

Read time: 2 minutes

In brief:

• The News Agents believe Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump in Tuesday night's 90-minute TV debate.
• They describe Harris as being "articulate and persuasive," effectively laying traps for Trump and addressing key issues like reproductive rights, while Trump often resorted to spreading disinformation.
• A CNN flash poll showed 63% of registered voters who watched the debate thought Harris performed better.

Both a snap poll and The News Agents analysis puts Kamala Harris on top after Tuesday night’s 90-minute TV debate.

Harris got off to a strong start on the ABC clash before the pair even locked horns on key flashpoints.

Jon notes how she immediately went over to Trump’s podium to firmly shake his hand, making it “clear that she was in charge of this situation”.

“I just thought it was a quiet assertion that was very effective from the get-go.“

And once the debate officially kicked off, Harris was “articulate and persuasive”, Jon adds.

“What Kamala Harris did was lay traps for Donald Trump, which he looked into and jumped exactly as she had hoped.

“She made her point… she was pretty clear on where she stood.”

And Emily agrees: “Kamala Harris, I think, will be pretty pleased with that performance, not just that she led him down certain byways, but that, apart from those initial nerves, she held her game.”

Harris was expected to take the lead on the debate around reproductive rights, and she did, shutting down Trump’s false claims the previous governor of West Virginia wanted a policy of being able to execute babies after they are born.

Emily thinks Trump would have done well to question Harris on things such as where she stands on term limits in this part of the debate, but instead he used his time to spread disinformation.

Even on topics where it was believed that Trump may have the edge, immigration, for example, which Emily says “Is not a safe territory for Harris”, saw Trump spew out falsehoods.

“She even managed to insert in the 90th minute, at the very last second, that she was a gun owner. Who saw that coming?”

Is Donald Trump acting like a 'grandpa' after the debate?

63% of registered voters who watched Tuesday’s debate between Harris and Trump say Harris turned in a better performance, with 37% saying Trump did, according to a CNN flash poll conducted by SSRS.

But what may signal more than anything how team Trump believes he performed in the debate, is the narrative that’s been given from the Trump camp since.

“If you want to get a sense now of what those around him are thinking and feeling, they're starting to blame the moderators, and that is usually a sign” Emily says.

“When you start blaming the moderators and saying it's disgraceful, and saying shame on you. You've kind of conceded that your candidate has bombed.”

Jon reveals that Trump himself was seen in the spin room after the debate.

“Clearly he feels that there is an operation that needs to happen after that debate, so he is trying to spin it himself. And from the images I've seen so far, it's not going that well.”

While The News Agents might think that Harris was the clear winner, Emily reminds everyone that “sometimes we will, of course, get this wrong”.

“We will hear a certain way that the debate played out that millions in America won't, they will have warmed to Donald Trump”, she says.

Listen to the episode of The News Agents USA on Global Player.

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