PHILADELPHIA — As the nation’s eyes turned to the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump at the National Constitution Center, surrogates on both sides of the aisle generally agreed on two things: They thought their candidate had won and they hoped for more debates in the future.
“I think there were a few moments where Donald Trump seemed unhinged and spouted conspiracy theories and a whole bunch of nonsense, and it was kind of a reminder of Trump’s chaos in the past, so that really stood out to me,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in the spin room at the Convention Center, a few blocks from the debate stage. “The second thing that stood out to me was the way Kamala Harris not only made the case against Trump, but she also clearly laid out her vision for how we can move forward.”
Shapiro said Harris did a “great job,” adding that “we need to close the chapter on the past and look to the future.”
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told reporters he viewed the debate as a “minor victory” for Trump and said Harris did not answer policy-related questions directly.
“Kamala Harris has dodged every important question that the American people have faced. She has spent her time attacking Donald Trump,” he said. “Donald Trump focused on inflation and our border and foreign policy. She did not.”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said Harris delivered a presidential presentation.
“She showed that she would be a president for all Americans and made a great case for why it was time to close the chapter on Donald Trump,” he said. “She put him on the defensive on every issue, and rightly so.”
Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican, said Trump’s attempts to suggest Harris ban fracking are a move she He had previously spoken out in favor but now he says she doesn’t support anymorecan go home to Pennsylvania, which is best producer natural gas.
“There are a lot of voters in Pennsylvania who care about energy and fracking, and President Trump has effectively demonstrated that Kamala Harris believes in ending fracking,” Gaetz said.
Tuesday night was the second presidential debate of the cycle, but the first time Trump and Harris have faced each other since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Republicans and Democrats want Harris and Trump to face each other again before the November presidential election.
“I would like to see another debate. I hope to see another debate,” California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom told the Spin Room. “If you’re Donald Trump, you run away from this debate. You do all this regretful stuff, you talk about how everything was somehow, you know, rigged against you. It’s a pity party.”
Donalds agreed that another debate was needed, but had a different take on how Tuesday’s debate should be moderated.
“I think these debates are very important,” Donalds said. “Now that we’ve done ABC and, I mean, let’s be very clear, the moderators didn’t fact-check her at all. She lied repeatedly in that debate.”
Shapiro said: “Whenever a team complains about the referees, it means they have lost.”
Tim Murtaugh, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said Trump had always wanted three debates and that Harris wanting more would be “an indication that she knows she still has a lot of work to do.”
Harris and Trump were close in polls in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, and there were differing views on how much the debate could change that vigorous.
Newsom said it remains to be seen whether the polls will change after the debate, but added that given Harris’ performance, he “can’t imagine it won’t affect the outcome.”
Donalds said the debate won’t change the polls. “This debate has really reinforced the concerns that a lot of people have about Kamala Harris. She’s not going to talk about specifics,” he said.
Cooper wasn’t sure.
“I know Kamala Harris has shown why she should be the next president. Donald Trump has shown why he shouldn’t be,” Cooper said. “And I hope that if enough undecided voters watch this debate, it could have a huge impact on the polls. … But the poll that we have to remember and that matters is Election Day.”
Shapiro noted that the previous two presidential elections were close, but said the “wind is at” Harris’s back, while Murtaugh stated that he did not think “she could win Pennsylvania.”
After the debate, Trump appeared in the discussion room, declared victory, and expressed some dissatisfaction.
“We thought it was our best debate. I think it was my best debate,” he said. “It showed how weak they are, how pathetic they are.”
Trump also claimed that “there were a lot of great polls out” showing him winning the debate, even though TV commentators noted that a candidate entering the “debate room” was usually a sign that the debate had not gone well.
While Trump appeared in the spin room, Harris visited a nearby watch party on the Cherry Street Pier.
Dispatches before the debate
Other surrogates present before the debate included U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, and Rick Scott, Republican of Florida.
“Remind them that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, a five-time draft dodger who only cares about one person, and that’s Donald Trump, who has done everything he could to support his wealthy friends, but at the same time allowed the middle class to fend for itself,” Duckworth told the spin room.
Scott said that “everyone knows Trump” and argued that the debate would be more about Harris having to defend the Biden administration ahead of the debate.
“They know that with Trump, you’re going to get a secure border, a good economy, not war,” Scott told the spin room. “I think Harris is going to have to figure out how to explain her past.”
Donalds, speaking to reporters outside a Max’s Steaks restaurant in Philadelphia during a “Black Voters for Trump” bus tour earlier Tuesday, said that life for Americans has improved under Trump and that this will be an argument in favor of his candidacy in the debate.
“She’s leaving the White House and everything has gone wrong,” said Donalds, who ordered a cheesesteak (provolone cheese with onions) and added that Harris has “ridden head-on” with Biden during the current administration.
According to 2020 exit polls92% of black voters in Pennsylvania supported Biden, while 7% supported Trump.
Donalds said the minimum threshold for Trump’s campaign to gain support among black voters in Pennsylvania is 12-15%, and he believes it is possible for him to get 15-20%.
Donalds was joined at a North Philadelphia cheesesteak restaurant on a bus tour by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former Democrat turned independent whose prison sentence was commuted to jail time by TrumpHe told reporters he saw similarities between “Democratic strongholds” like Philadelphia and Detroit, but added he believed the Democratic Party had moved left in recent years, prompting him to leave the party.
Kilpatrick predicted Trump would do better in 2024 among black voters in Pennsylvania, adding that Biden did better because of the events of 2020, including the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide debate over race it sparked.
“The race issues were so important and so heavy and the divisive issues were even more important and I think people are trying to create that atmosphere now, but it’s not the same,” Kilpatrick said.
While he supports Trump, Kilpatrick did not underestimate Harris and the impact the debate could have.
“When it comes to presidential elections, debates aren’t usually that important,” Kilpatrick said. “But I think this is the most critical and important debate in the history of debates because of the juxtaposition of these two candidates.”
“A woman of color, a white man. Trump’s personality, her friendly, laughing personality, couldn’t be more different, but I think their policy positions couldn’t be more different,” he added, although he said Harris “has a way of clearly expressing a point of view” while Biden struggled in the previous debate.
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-4th District) told reporters in the Spin Room earlier in the evening that she wants “Kamala to be Kamala” during the debate and not to be provoked into “nonsense” by Trump.
“I want her to be herself and make the case against Mr. Trump,” Dean said.
“But what is much, much, much more crucial is the interest of my children and grandchildren. What a positive future that is here for us that I know she can create. Look at what has happened to the economy under Biden-Harris. We just have to grow from it,” Dean added.
A few minutes before Dean spoke to reporters, she was unexpectedly joined by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump supporter who Completed his third-party presidential campaign in August, during a live television interview. Dean said she had “no idea why he came out” during her one-on-one TV interview, but told him she admired his fatherformer Attorney General and U.S. Senator who was assassinated in 1968.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who is trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), told reporters at a separate event Tuesday morning in Bucks County that he “wouldn’t presume to give the president advice on how to conduct a debate,” but shared what he believes will be key.
“I think he should just let Kamala Harris defend a set of positions that are completely at odds with Pennsylvania,” McCormick said, arguing that the current administration has shown “poor leadership.”
