Who Won the Debate?
At the conclusion of the recent presidential debate, the liberal news media came to the immediate conclusion that Kamala Harris emerged as the winner over Donald Trump.
They accused him of making over 20 allegations that were untrue while Harris made only one or two such statements. A poll taken at the conclusion of the debate indicated that around 50 percent of viewers thought Harris had won while only around 30 percent believed Trump had won. That was undoubtedly because Harris gave the more polished performance while Trump (as usual) tended to speak off the cuff. He was essentially saying the same things that he says at his many rallies across the nation.
When quizzed about who they thought had won, Democrats tended to indicate Harris had won while Republicans believed Trump had won. Many comments indicated that the moderators were biased in favor of Harris. Nobody believed they were biased in favor of Trump. It was noted, for example, that they were quick to conclude Trump was making false allegations while not saying a word about serious falsehoods made by Harris. The leading example of this was their silence concerning Harris' charge (which has been debunked by virtually everyone including liberals) that Trump had said there were good people on both sides in the counter demonstrations between racists and non-racists concerning the removal of civil war statues. In point of fact, he had utterly condemned the racists but had concluded that some good southerners had simply demonstrated for the preservation of civil war history.
Perhaps the most telling argument made by Trump in the debate was that Harris was remiss in making so many reform-oriented proposals that she vowed to carry out if she were elected. Trump wanted to know why, if she really intended to follow through with those reforms, she hadn't already done so. She had been in power for three and a half years and could have pushed through all those reforms a couple of years back. Waitresses were hurting now because of low wages and inflation. He had promised to end taxation on their tips when he was elected. A month later she made the same promise. Why hadn't she already pushed through legislation to help those waitresses?
Trump also criticized Harris for her multitude of reversals in positions held. It was his view that the reversals merely indicated a desire to get elected rather than a real change in views. She was simply saying what she believed the voters wanted to hear.
For her part, Harris continued to attack Trump for his opposition to abortions. Trump continued to say that states should be the ones to decide on the abortion question. He asserted, however, that her statement that no states allowed late-term abortions was false and that she was radical for holding views that did not put legal restrictions on such abortions. His view would allow abortions in case of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother.
Initially even quite a few Republican leaders believed that Harris had won the debate. Harris, herself, immediately pushed for future debates. Trump responded that losing fighters always called for a rematch and that he wasn't going to give one to Harris. Republicans who initially accepted the conclusion of the liberal media, however, have begun to wonder whether they were wrong to do so.
There was a focus group selected to analyze the debate. It was made up of an equal number of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Each individual was given an indicator to use throughout the debate to indicate the strength of positive or negative reactions to each candidate's statements. The conclusion reached by that focus group was that when Donald Trump spoke, both Republicans and Independents strongly supported what he said. When Kamala Harris spoke, only Democrats supported her.
This election will be won by the candidate who receives the most independent votes. Therefore, although Trump was not as polished as Harris, he won the debate because he won the all-important votes of independents. Harris may have won the votes of news media pundits, but that group is woefully lacking in terms of its voting power.
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Haughey is Senior Advisor of the Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association.