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Donald Trump’s performance in the volcanic debate has put the US president’s sympathy for white supremacists at the center of the campaign’s spotlight, increasing a sense of menacing chaos in the campaign that threatens to undermine other Republicans for the campaign. reelection in a year that was already a challenge for the party. .
The comments unsettled Trump’s allies and gave his rival, Joe Biden, a springboard to return to the issues that prompted the former vice president’s candidacy: a restoration of the nation’s character that had been degraded by political toughness and animosity. racial.
“Last night I think was a wake-up call for all Americans,” Biden said during a campaign event in Alliance, Ohio, one of seven stops on a train ride Wednesday local time (Thursday NZT) through two states. key.
He criticized Trump for his “doggy whistle to white supremacy,” particularly Trump’s call on the Proud Boys to “back off and stay out of it.”
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Biden issued his own message to the extremist group: “Cease and desist.”
Trump had no regrets the next day, tweeting Wednesday that the debate was “fun” even though it was “two against one,” claiming that moderator Chris Wallace sided with Biden against him.
Patrick Semansky / AP
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, refused to condemn white supremacy in one of the key points of the first debate.
As Trump’s comment dominated post-debate news coverage, Republicans raised concerns about how the fallout from the chaotic debate and the way the campaign is shaping up could affect party candidates on the ballot.
“It feels like 2018 again,” said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, referring to the midterm elections that brought huge losses for the party and handed control of the House over to the Democrats.
That election “was a referendum on Donald Trump, and this year it feels exactly the same. Republicans don’t do well in that kind of electoral environment.”
Trump’s spokesman, Hogan Gidley, defended Trump’s performance in the debate, insisting that the president had actually condemned white supremacists.
“He said ‘sure’ three times,” Gidley said on CNN, referring to his response to questions about whether he would condemn the supremacists. “The president does it and called them.”
But outside of Trump’s staff, even many of his staunch supporters struggled to make sense of his comments and spin them favorably.
“I think he was wrong, I think he should correct him,” said Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator. “If you don’t correct it, I guess you weren’t wrong.”
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican, said on CNN that “Democrats owe a lot to Chris Wallace,” and blamed the moderator for asking the question that prompted Trump’s Proud Boys comment.
“He was asking the president to do something that he knows the president doesn’t like to do, which is to say something bad about the people who support him.”
Andrew Harnik / AP
Former Vice President Joe Biden embarked on a seven-stop train trip through Ohio and Pennsylvania after the debate.
The Trump campaign felt compelled to repeat in a video the times that the president has condemned the Ku Klux Klan over the years. “Here are 7 examples of President Trump condemning the KKK,” the campaign account “Trump War Room” tweeted.
But the president himself did not back down from his comment, instead criticizing Wallace and retweeting comments from conservative supporters attacking Biden.
The controversy echoed the pushback on Trump’s handling of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, three years ago, when he said there were “very good people on both sides.” Biden said those comments prompted him to run for president, and he’s now leveraging a sequel to jumpstart his campaign in recent weeks.
Trump’s aides have been hoping to reshape the final weeks of the campaign in terms that Republicans believe work in his favor, as a choice between him and Biden, whom he portrays as a tool of the far left of the Democratic Party.
However, the reaction to the debate on Tuesday night (Wednesday NZT) seemed to fit into the current frame of the race: a referendum on Trump, which has clearly favored the Democrats.
On the network’s morning shows, a key source of information for swing voters who tend not to follow politics closely, Republicans struggled to defend Trump.
On CBS ‘ This morningFor example, former GOP chairman Reince Priebus tried to avoid commenting on Trump’s comment about the Proud Boys, claiming he hadn’t heard him say it.
John Locher / AP
The far-right group Proud Boys has tried to capitalize on the apparent backing of US President Donald Trump.
“You’ll have to ask him,” Priebus said when host Gayle King asked if Trump would condemn white supremacists on Wednesday (NZT Thursday).
Even Brian Kilmeade, a Trump-friendly host in Fox and friends, the president’s favorite television show, expressed great disappointment.
“Donald Trump screwed up the biggest trap in debate history by failing to condemn white supremacists,” he said. “I don’t know if he didn’t hear it, but he has to clear that up right away. It’s like, are you against evil? Why didn’t the president leave him out of the park? I’m not sure.”
Trump was also reprimanded by the Portland, Oregon sheriff, whom the president claimed during the debate that he supported him.
“I have Florida, I have Texas, I have Ohio,” Trump said. “Excuse me Portland, the sheriff just came out today and said, ‘I support President Trump.’
But Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese took to Twitter on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT) to deny such support.
“As a Multnomah County Sheriff, I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him,” he tweeted.
The aftermath of the debate could pose a threat not only to the president, who has followed Biden for months, but also to Republicans running for re-election in swing states, like Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is already fighting for maintain the backing of Trump supporters while distancing themselves enough from the president to attract swing voters.
The debate could also hurt Republican efforts to hold on to congressional constituencies in the country’s suburbs.
“Many found the whole debate disturbing,” said Sarah Chamberlain, chairman of the Main Street PAC Republican Party, a group that supports the dwindling gang of centrist Republicans in the House.
“Our survey shows that it hurt the brand in suburban areas,” he said.
While spinning the post-debate commentary, Biden embarked on a seven-stop train ride through Ohio and Pennsylvania, underscoring a theme he tried to convey in the din of Tuesday’s debate (Wednesday NZT).
“Does your president understand anything you’re going through?” he said.
“Does he see you where you are and where you want to be? Does he care? Has he tried to put himself in your shoes to understand what’s going on in your life?”
Trump plans a rally later that day in Minnesota.
Analysts were baffled by what Trump was trying to accomplish in the debate. He needs to win over moderate Republicans and faltering independents to overcome Biden’s lead in the polls. But instead, it seems to have puzzled them.
Two quick public polls of debate spectators showed that Biden won the debate; 60 percent-28 percent in a CNN poll; a closer result, 48% -41%, on one from CBS.
– Los Angeles Times
