Karl Rove, the Republican political consultant and deputy chief of staff in the George W Bush administration, has pulled no punches in an op-ed saying that Donald Trump’s debate against Kamala Harris was a “train wreck” for him.
Calling Trump’s debate performance “catastrophic”, he goes as far as to say that he was “crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock’.”
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rove says the former president’s performance was “far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined” and Trump was “visibly rattled” as Harris “launched rocket after rocket at him.”
Rove notes that according to an analysis by The New York Times, Harris spent 46 percent of her time on the attack, while Trump’s attacks only amounted to 29 percent of his time.
“Debates aren’t won on defense,” he wrote.
Going deeper, Rove writes that Trump was bested by his emotions when he must have known Harris would try and get him to lose his cool.
“He took the bait almost every time she put it on the hook, offering a pained smile as she did,” Rove said. “Rather than dismissing her attacks and launching his strongest counterarguments against her, Mr Trump got furious.”
Things only got worse as her attacks continued, says Rove, noting: “He gripped the podium more often and more firmly. He grimaced and shook his head, at times responding with wild and fanciful rhetoric.”
Trump failed to deliver the short, deft replies and counterpunches that would have been effective, the political consultant writes, and the former president failed at his most important task of tying Harris to President Joe Biden’s failed policies.
Offering his opinion of Trump’s demeanor, Rove says: “It matters how debating candidates carry themselves. There, it was no contest. Ms Harris came across as calm, confident, strong and focused on the future. Mr Trump came across as hot, angry and fixated on the past, especially his own.”
Further, he says of Harris: “She mastered the split screen, projecting confidence and wordlessly undercutting him by smiling while shaking her head as he spoke.”
It is this impression, he writes, that will help many undecided and swing voters make up their minds. Others will have wanted to learn something new and reassuring about the candidates, and Harris, he says, provided them with plenty.
In conclusion, Rove writes that while the debate will have an effect on the election, it is probably not as much as the Harris campaign hopes for, nor the Trump team fears.
“But there’s no putting lipstick on this pig,” says Rove. “Mr Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock’. Which raises the question: What does that make him?”
In a rare move, widely interpreted as a realization the debate had not gone well, Trump appeared in the spin room afterward, usually the preserve of campaign officials and surrogates, and spoke with the media.
He claimed it was his “best debate ever.”