She set a tone at the very start when she walked right into his space to shake his hand and made him almost pull back into himself in response. She was in charge and never stopped being in charge.

Harris also managed what neither Joe Biden nor Hillary Clinton nor any of the 2016 Republicans managed to do which is successfully bait Donald Trump and get under his skin. Within a few minutes Trump was visibly angry and not in a way that empowered him but in a way that made him lose focus, go down rabbit holes and generally go off onto damaging tangents. Spittle anger, not righteous anger, shall we say.

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    As one who is 100% on the democratic side, I think Harris obviously won the debate.
    But I’m very curious about what Republicans think? Do they think Trump made a good response saying he didn’t need a plan because he isn’t president?
    I was a bit disappointed Harris didn’t attack him on the fact that it’s been more than 8 years now since Trump said he would come up with a better healthcare plan. Stressing the 8 years, and the result being still nothing. So a concept of a plan for Trump seems to mean he has NOTHING!

    But still, do Republicans view this as Trump did OK?

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      From what I’ve been seeing around the internet, Republicans are convinced that the debate was rigged. Harris was given the questions in advance, the moderators were biased, etc. etc.

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        So they are making excuses for Trump, which can only mean they could see that he lost.

        I also heard that Trump was alone against 3. I guess because they called out a couple of his lies, especially the insane bit about emigrants eating peoples pets in Ohio.

        So apparently some Republicans are not happy with how he did in the debate.

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          Some Republicans, like all of the ones endorsing Harris, but Trump’s MAGA core voting base is still shielded by their reality distortion field where Trump “won”.

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        She actually prepared for the debate! And she’s actually competent at this sort of thing! Totally rigged!

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          She’s a litigator, she treated it like court. Very effective when your opposition makes insane rants.

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        Harris was given the questions in advance

        It would need a particular stupid person not to know what kind of topics/questions will come up in such a debate.

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        So I flipped over to Fox News right after to see how they would spin the debate. Everyone spins this stuff, it’s normal, but after that debate, I wanted to see how bad it would be. Well, Hannity was on, and you can imagine how it went. They said Harris was weak, didn’t have answers or dodged the questions, had weird faces, and then they just regurgitated his flat-out lies.

        I couldn’t even watch 10 minutes because it was so painfully obvious they were just lying through their teeth, and it was so desperate sounding that to a non-R voter, it came across as them not even watching the debate.

        There is spin, then there is flat out lieing.

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          I couldn’t even watch 10 minutes because it was so painfully obvious they were just lying through their teeth, and it was so desperate sounding that to a non-R voter, it came across as them not even watching the debate.

          I think that may be their strategy. They assume a lot of their base doesn’t want to watch the debate, instead they just tune in after the fact, and they get the bizarro universe account of what happened presented as fact and thus feel more validated in their beliefs.

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          It’s crazy how much things have changed in 8 years. Before Trump came on the scene, Fox was very biased, but their stories had a basis in fact. 4 years ago they had gone down the drain, but still prevented a coup by calling AZ for Biden. Now they tell lies about as frequently as Trump.

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            I think the change came with Obama, but that’s also around the time I moved out of the place where I heard it all the time, so it could just be that that’s when my normal meter was reset.

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            4 years ago? They kept repeating birtherism lies about Obama from day 1. The second Trump was a candidate, they flipped to unbased conspiracy theories. We are almost at 16 years of this bullshit.

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      I checked twitter. Generally they think Trump won. They also think the moderators were a Harris’ team and it was 3 vs 1. They think he owned her with the “I’m talking now” line. There’s also a conspiracy theory that Harris was wearing earrings with speakers in them.

      But no debate was going to change the mind of people already in the maga cult anyway.

      For ‘undecided’ voters I’ve seen this didn’t move the needle much but Harris was slightly ahead.

      The biggest win is probably for already dem leaning voters being more excited to get out and vote rather than not voting - especially with Taylor Swift encouraging them to register and vote now.

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        I’d consider it a win if she gets more registered dems to get out and vote.
        That’s the only thing I wish they’d say more often. Get out and vote!

        We have loads of people on both sides that are registered, but sit on their ass too much.
        Dems vote way less than Reps. Feels like a bad HOA way too often.
        Shit gets ruined by bored old people cause they don’t have anything better to do.

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          That’s the only thing I wish they’d say more often. Get out and vote!

          Depends on how they say it.

          “Pokemon Go…to the polls” still echoes in the dark recesses or my memory.

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            Unrelated outside of the title… Pokemon Go to the Polls was a very fun bonus episode for dungeons and daddies

            Related, I really hope the Taylor Swift fans register and vote (and more, but her fans are relevant right now considering the endorsement right after the debate)

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        It’s kind of curious they think Trump won, but still think Harris had earring speakers and the moderators on her side.
        I wonder if Harris was fed bad info on her earring speakers?
        This sounds like as you write Maga cult.

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          The moderators probably seemed like they were on her side, because they only fact checked trump. But we all know the reason for that is because most of what he said were lies.

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            And they conveniently ignore everything that doesn’t align with what they want to believe.

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          It’s the core of everything they believe. Dems are masterful conspirators who control everything and have injectable 5G technology that they can keep completely secret while literally injecting it into people, but they’re also incompetent and can’t run a country. Whichever narrative fits, you run with, even if it means contradicting itself minutes apart, as happened in the debate.

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        They think he owned her with the “I’m talking now” line.

        For fuck’s sake that’s HER LINE that she said FOUR YEARS AGO, they aren’t even capable of making their own jokes now? Even the insults have to be ripped off secondhand bullshit? Donald is proving himself highly incapable of actually having an independent thought. I’ve always thought he was pretty dumb, but, just, damn. There really is nothing in there, huh?

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          He was so proud of that line. He crowed about it to Hannity after the debate. That was the one line he had teed up and couldn’t wait to use so he could claim he pwned her. Nobody but his sycophants thought it worked well

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      Had he pulled down his pants, shat on the rug, and threw it at the moderators, republicans would think he won.

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        He doesn’t have very good aim and probably would do better to have his diaper boy take off his diaper and set it on the rug.

        He is well known to be incontinent to an extreme degree.

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          Amphetamine abuse does that, and it’s been pretty well documented the man eats Adderall like candy.

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      National Review is about the only place I bother to go for an R take on news, and their front page is not very positive about him this morning.

      List of Headlines:

      Republicans Blame Debate Moderators as Democrats Take a Victory Lap

      Debate 2024: Trump Takes the Bait, but Does It Matter?

      Trump’s Trainwreck

      Harris Was Completely Wrong to Say That There Are No Americans in Combat Zones Today

      An Anticlimactic Debate, an Incomplete Grade

      ‘Childless Cat Lady’ Taylor Swift Endorses Harris Moments after Debate Wraps

      Harris Emerges Largely Unscathed from First-Ever Meeting with an Unfocused Trump

      Tim Burton’s Stale Hollywood Gothic: Bobbert says new Beetlejuice not nearly as erotic as the musical

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          I like to make sure people actually read the things I share! 😁

          The first half is real from their page, I just assumed the second half was what the article would be about.

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            For a minute I was wondering if the National Review was going the way of whatever the fuck that one Bee website is… something like a conservative take on The Onion. Can’t remember the name and I’m out of fucks to give to look it up.

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              Babylon Bee. I like their logo, but that’s about the only positive I have about them.

              You are better off having those braincells back for useful things than retaining that info. I’m a lost cause. 😜

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        Childless cat lady Taylor Swift? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

        Edit: I had to look this up, she called herself this in the endorsement in her sign off message at the end in response to something JD Vance said about women earlier.

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      That 8 years thing for healthcare could easily backfire. The majority of Americans are very fed up with our healthcare, and Democrats haven’t done much to fix it this administration either (not entirely their fault, we have a gridlocked Congress and Senate, after all). The concept of a plan quote is hilarious, though! My friends and I plan on using it at work from now on.

      Anyway, even most Republican media outlets have conceded that Harris won last night. As for the MAGA cult itself, I honestly haven’t bothered to go down that internet hole yet, nor am I likely to. I’m sure there’s countless bots/trolls spinning the story and creating a fake reality already, with plenty of zealots lapping it up because their collective delusion requires it.

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        That 8 years thing for healthcare could easily backfire. The majority of Americans are very fed up with our healthcare,

        Yes but Democrats and particularly Harris want to improve it further, it’s the Republicans that have refused to play ball for 16 years now.
        Harris did mention results on medicin prices, and ongoing work to improve that further. So isn’t it still a very obvious advantage for Democrats and their political goals that people are fed up with the lack of progress?

        My friends and I plan on using it at work from now on.

        🤣

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          Oh for sure, they’ve made some progress and there are a lot of D reps and senators who want to do much more, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. But, the modern American public at large act like the president is some grand arbiter of getting laws passed single-handedly. Many ignore that it’s Congress that’s the most dysfunctional component when it comes to actually getting things done for the last two-some-odd decades. Hell, we have tons of people that chalk up the entire state of the economy on a single person every election cycle, it’s craziness.

          Anyway, my point is that anyone that’s actually paying attention in good faith knows it’s almost entirely the GOP blocking healthcare reform. But, as we’ve especially learned these last 10+ years, many Americans don’t pay attention to reality.

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      I went on r/the_donald to check what they’re saying. The top posts were all about how biased ABC was. So yeah, they think he lost.

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      “Your system is so bad, terrible! Anyone can do better!”

      “And yet you couldn’t in your term and still don’t have an idea how to do it even now? So you admit you can’t fix what you believe to be an easy problem to solve? That’s a weird stance to take during a debate you’re trying to win but ok.”

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      I don’t think the MAGA movement is able to have realistic responses at this point.

      This thing normal people can still do – “that was good, but we could do better”, or even “wow, expected much more than that” – would be impossible for MAGA. Any performance must be the best they have ever seen. Trump can do no wrong in the eyes of his supporters. Any room for improvement is seen as weakness.

      The fact is, Trump could have gone out there and laid right down for a nap. MAGA would still say it was the best debate performance they ever saw in the history of the country.

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        I don’t think the MAGA movement is able to have realistic responses at this point.

        They haven’t been fed the line to say by their favorite entertainment network.

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      I know a conservative mother who started the debate with Israel, abortion, and godly values being her main concerns. Godly values was the most important to her.

      Before we even got to “concepts of a plan” she actually said she isn’t sure who is the best choice for the country. We stopped giving the tv our full attention when she said it was depressing her - we ended up playing cards games the rest of the debate so I didn’t react as much. But thankfully I got to chuckle live at the concepts of a plan.

      I’ve been trying to avoid saying “weird” when talking about republicans. I don’t want right leaning folk to think I’m trying to buzzword them. But it’s really hard and sometimes I do say weird (was describing JD Vance’s eyeliner) but that kinda makes it worse because I’ll catch myself saying it and backpedal immediately and change the word (the eyeliner became ‘unflattering’ instead of ‘weird’) and they notice. And it feels like I have to protect them. Like… I’m not calling them snowflakes to their faces… But I’m loudly walking the proverbial egg shells.

      This is why I had to say that “Concepts of a plan” was cute instead of weird. I ended up comparing it to my mother asking if I had cleaned my room, with me responding “I’ve thought about cleaning my room.”

      All that to say… It’s hard for anyone with a good heart to enjoy Trump speaking. We made comments that Harris was obviously baiting him - but does that matter when he takes the bait? The immigration stories. The hate-filled eyes.

      Trump is either a mean old man who is innocent. Or he’s a terrible liar - and truly a bad person.

      It was a good night. I don’t know who she will vote for. But in 2020 I DID. When Harris addressed how you don’t need to abandon your faith to know the trump ban laws are wrong, it felt like Kamala was speaking directly to people like her

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      I’m disappointed a little in Harris. She’s letting him get away with the narrative that she hasn’t done anything in the last 4 years.

      I really wanted her to turn to him on immigration and say his fucking wall was in that boarder bill and he scuttled it for political points, drop the mic and walk out.

      She won overall, but she could of hit a couple of those rebuttals out of the park for a walk off homerun…they were singles instead.

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        I’m disappointed a little in Harris. She’s letting him get away with the narrative that she hasn’t done anything in the last 4 years.

        She was only the VP, though. Her job is to do the things the President lets her do, and break up fights in the Senate. VPs simply don’t do that much. She could (and did) bring out the accomplishments of the Biden administration, but that just called attention to the fact that Biden had to drop out, so she could only do it sparingly.

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          Also, Donald “I have the concept of a plan, I’m not president” Trump probably shouldn’t be pushing that angle too hard

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          I know the below doesn’t quite work since Biden dropped out before 8y but doesn’t it benefit the party for the president to give some higher profile jobs to the VP so the VP can campaign on those after their 8 year run? Maybe they wait for the 2nd term to be more beneficial, but it’d seem like a good idea for both terms in case something like this happens.

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        Yes there were a couple of situations where she could have made him look like a huge idiot (more than normal), but she kind of dropped the ball IMO.
        It’s probably easier to see from the outside, she’d have to be razor sharp to catch these opportunities real time.
        Still she did well, and did catch him a few times, and made no serious mistakes.

        But border security, healthcare and the idiot thing about emigrants eating pets, were all obvious chances.
        We just have to hope enough voters know enough about the issues to see through Trumps lies and lack of policy.

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          When talking about Climate Change, I was wishing Harris would say something like “Trump is 79 years old and won’t be around long enough to see the worst effects of climate change so maybe that’s why he doesn’t care anything about it…”

          When talking about international affairs, I was wishing Harris would say something like “Trump’s chaos is going to cause an explosion of nuclear proliferation, but Trump is 79 years old and won’t be around long enough to see the terrible problems he is going to leave us…”

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          It’s a fine line to walk, between drilling deep into each of his faults and failures and presenting herself as the capable adult in the room – especially when his lies per minute are so high, he’s just spouting a firehouse of bullshit, and they’re limited to 2 minute responses.

          I think she did a fantastic job of baiting him into anger and incoherence without seeming petty, and delivering her points concisely. Trump is a challenge to debate, not because he’s good at it, but it’s like trying to wrestle a pig – his only strategy is to drag you into the mud with him.

          Even when she was muted, she got her response across very effectively with her facial expressions of disbelief, astonishment, and incredulous amusement. Her reactions where she didn’t even speak are already becoming memes.

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          Agreed. To me it seems like a mix of relying too much on her memorized prep and possibly a bit of the old Democrats “taking the high road” thing. She did well at baiting him, but less so at exploiting his openings I’d say.

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      No. They Republicans are thoroughly embarrassed and most of them are going to actually vote for Harris now. They are sick and tired of argregious lies and fabricated inconsistent stories and this really pushed them over the edge. They feel that racist fears of others as the sole platform for a presidency is tired and ridiculous.

      If you are naive enough to wonder what their response is this far into the collapse of the GOP, you might as well go on believing this story; take advantage of whatever memory block you suffer from and at least replace your fantasy with something positive.