Trump didn’t just lose the debate – he was given a mauling

Kamala Harris controlled her crucial debate clash with Donald Trump, distracting him into rants about his rallies and extraordinary claims about migrants stealing and eating people’s pets, writes Jon Sopel. Painting the US as a hellscape is no way for him to convince the moderates he needs to win the White House

‘Donald Trump never looked at Kamala Harris, his contempt and pent up fury barely beneath the surface’ (Getty)

Would it be the economy? Global affairs? Or maybe a personal slight that would dominate the headlines after this fiery and unforgettable debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump? No, the jawdrop moment was about cats. And hands up who had that on their bingo card?

So forgive me if this column has a strong feline theme. But as you will see it runs through last night’s events like the word “Blackpool” through a stick of rock.

In the name of precision, I should say cats and dogs, and also give a shout out to Springfield, Ohio as the location and starting point. It is here in this hitherto relatively anonymous Midwestern town that – according to Donald Trump – in the dead of night, illegal immigrants are marauding through and eating everyone’s cats and dogs. No pet is safe it would seem.

Except according to the moderators of last night’s debate who were fact-checking the former president in real time, it’s not true: Tiddles and Fido are safe. ABC had checked this claim out, and it doesn’t stack up.

But it was part of a hellscape that Donald Trump was trying to conjure of what it was like to live in Biden’s America. On the question of abortion, where Kamala Harris has opened a massive lead with women voters according to the polls, Trump said Democrats were in favour of abortion after nine months – in other words after the baby was born. Democrats were “executing” babies, he charged. Except that, of course executing babies is murder and illegal in all 50 states. More than 90 per cent of abortions in the US take place in the first trimester. The moderators called him out again for this falsehood.

No doubt about it, abortion and immigration are big issues, but the framing of them by Trump was way over the top. It will be the stuff of parody and endless memes on the late shows. And it’s hard to discern the strategy – sure the MAGA base will lap it up. But they’re already in his corner. How was framing this in such caricatured terms going to win over moderate opinion – the liberal Republicans, the independents the suburbs where November’s contest will be settled? It was as though he hadn’t prepared.

The economy is – again, according to the polls – where Trump enjoys the biggest advantage. And that is where the debate started, with the presenter asking Kamala Harris whether Americans were better off than they were four years ago. She didn’t even nod to the question. Totally ignored it. But Trump never picked her up on it. Instead he kept on going back to how he had built the best economy the world had ever seen when he was president.

In (almost literally) the 90th minute, Trump made the point that Harris couldn’t present herself as the change candidate when she had been at Biden’s side throughout. It’s the argument that his campaign team believe is his strongest suit; he should have been hammering that message throughout. But he kept on being distracted.

What Kamala Harris did brilliantly was goad him into those distractions. People left his rallies because they got bored, the American people sacked him in 2020, the military think he’s a disgrace – and each time, like a kitten with a ball of string, he couldn’t resist reaching out a claw and rising to the bait. All of which assisted her in painting Trump as being a candidate who was locked in the past, nursing his grievances, while she was the candidate of the future with an offer of hope.

At times, Trump seemed rattled. And for all that he is normally the absolute master of the studio and the theatre of television, he kept looking at the TV presenters when he responded; she looked down the barrel of the camera lens to give the impression she was addressing the American public directly. He never looked at Kamala Harris, his contempt and pent-up fury barely beneath the surface.

Perhaps his greatest grievance was that he wasn’t still facing Joe Biden on the debate stage. This was a very different opponent for Trump. The rambling, incoherent 81-year-old president was much more to his liking.

In the post-debate spin room, the norm is that your trusted surrogates and champions go out and explain why your guy won. Last night after the bruising 90-minute encounter, Trump went in himself, and the accusations were flying that the moderators had been unfair to him in calling out the repeated lies. But if you’re complaining that is a sure sign you know you have been beaten. And if you don’t trust your advisers to do the spinning for you, it suggests all is not well in the campaign.

But then within an hour of the debate ending, enter stage left none other than Taylor Swift with her quarter of a billion followers on social media. She has come out in favour of Kamala Harris in a long and calmly written post on her Instagram account. And at the end of her post, she signed off by describing herself as a “childless cat lady” – a clear dig at Trump’s running mate, JD Vance who seemed to attack women who don’t have children.

It’s easy to overdo “celeb” endorsements in politics. But Taylor Swift isn’t just any rock star. She’s a cultural phenomenon. And if her involvement encourages more young people to register to vote, if it nudges more women in Kamala Harris’s direction then it matters.

So, in answer to the central question did Trump lose last night? He was given a mauling. But does it mean the race is all but over? Not a cat’s chance.

Trump has been shown to have nine lives. Don’t count him out yet.