Even Fox News couldn’t spin the truth: Trump lost the debate—badly.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris listens to former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speak during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024.(Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)
I woke up Tuesday morning sick with dread.
There was a time when the idea of a debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and disgraced former president Donald Trump exhilarated me. In July, I was thrilled to hear her directly challenge Trump: “If you’ve got something to say, Donald, say it to my face”
But then I watched the Beltway media repeatedly lower the bar for Trump; by Monday night, I feared all he had to do to win was not use the n-word or the c-word. Maybe that’s extreme, but not by much: All he had to do was not be a snarling, racist, misogynist maniac. “Can Trump restrain himself?” was the top question in a New York Times preview.
Harris, meanwhile, had to introduce herself to the country and project policy chops; plus be likable (but not a needy approval-seeker); plus be aggressive, but not too aggressive (cue the Fox News dog-whistle signaling “Angry Black Woman!”).
During the first debate against Biden, the mentally disintegrating felon proved that he could compose himself, pundits droned. But Biden did so much damage to himself that Trump didn’t have to muss up his shellacked combover to win. Still, many said that’s all he had to do to beat Harris too. He could do it. You could almost hear them saying: He would do it.
By Game Day—because yes, mainstream political reporters mostly cover their beats like sports reporters—it felt like Trump couldn’t lose and Harris couldn’t win.
But he lost. Even Fox News admitted it.
“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.”
That was Fox’s Brit Hume.
At about this time, Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris. She wrote to her 283 million followers on Instagram, “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” The endorsement was paired with a photo of her holding her cat, Benjamin Button, and she signed it “Childless Cat Lady.”
I wanted Harris to win on her policy chops, and I thought she did throughout the debate. But the media mostly ignores her policy program, paying too much attention to the price of bacon and cereal.
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But the acknowledgment from even right-wing cable news that Trump, acting like his normal self, flopped was something I didn’t imagine.
I’ll wake up feeling better Wednesday morning.
Joan WalshTwitterJoan Walsh, a national affairs correspondent for The Nation, is a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show and the author of What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America. Her new book (with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power and Wealth In America.