Paul Krishnamurty's Debate Reaction: Disastrous performance from Trump leaves him trailing Harris

• Trump played the same old tricks, and lost

• Harris flips her underdog status to odds-on favourite

• Taylor Swift endorses Harris to cap perfect evening for Democrats

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In Monday's preview, I said the presidential debate presented an opportunity for the relatively undefined Kamala Harris to define herself.

She could hardly have been expected to do it any better, and the market concurred. From being clear outsider going in, she is now the clear favourite at odds of 21/202.05 and shortening fast.

A disastrous performance from Trump

The contrast in messaging between Harris and Trump was stark, and to the Democrat's favour. Harris offered hope, optimism for the future, and hammered home that she had a plan.

That she would work for the American people, whereas Trump was only interested in himself. That all he offered was division, and the same old, tired playbook.

That she wanted to bring people together, lift them up, Trump wanted to beat them down.

Of course one would expect her to say that but the critical thing is Trump didn't really do anything to disprove her. He just repeatedly condemned Harris and Biden and kept reverting to scaremongering about immigration.

Answer after answer descended into 'millions and millions of people, criminals, are crossing our border.'

Harris baited Trump throughout

She baited into him banging on about her crowd sizes, and Trump humiliated himself with instantly debunked claims about migrants eating pets.

Omg Trump takes the bait and starts rambling about crowd sizes and repeats baseless claims about immigrants eating pets and gets fact checked

Kamala Harris immediately capitalizes on it pic.twitter.com/naaXf1GFiq

-- Acyn (@Acyn) September 11, 2024

Former President Donald Trump claimed during Tuesday night's presidential debate that Vice President Kamala Harris pays individuals to attend her campaign rallies. CBS News Confirmed found this statement to be false. Here's why. https://t.co/9JQX0qtauZ pic.twitter.com/QtoKz9Nxtn

-- CBS News (@CBSNews) September 11, 2024

Even on the issues where one might have thought Trump would win, he failed to land punches.

On the border, she simply referenced his blocking the bi-partisan bill to beef up border controls for political gain.

On her various policy flip-flops, he kept coming back to the one she competently dealt with - fracking.

The moderators asked him tough questions, for example about whether he regretted anything about January 6th, or his lack of a healthcare plan. Each time, Trump's answers made a bad situation worse.

I don't know, Trump might be doing worse tonight than Joe Biden did at the last debate.

-- Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) September 11, 2024

Kamala Harris won the debate. And it wasn't particularly close.https://t.co/CGI2iqIFUi

-- Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) September 11, 2024

Expect polls to show a big win for Harris

I'm writing this before any polls are taken but strongly expect she'll be declared the winner by at least a 20 point margin.

There was a consensus among impartial commentators, in the same way there was when Trump hammered Biden in June on the debate stage.

Tomorrow will see factcheckers list dozens of lies, including plenty of really obvious, blatant ones.

Swift support seals perfect night for Harris

BREAKING

Calling herself a "childless cat lady," Taylor Swift says she is voting for Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/XfVTU6oW0V

-- Yashar Ali (@yashar) September 11, 2024

An almost perfect night for Harris ended on a new high, with an endorsement from Taylor Swift, calling herself a 'childless cat lady'.

The campaign instantly challenged Trump to another debate. It will be hard for Trump to refuse, because he is going to urgently need to reset this race and narrative.

The next few days could be brutal.

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