Politics

Rolling Stone, “Trump Rushes to Spin Room to Save Face After Disastrous Debate”:

The clearest sign that Kamala Harris’ campaign thought she won the ABC presidential debate was the fact that her elated surrogates in the post-debate spin room were gloating about “finally landing a punch on Donald Trump” — and floating the possibility of a rematch.

The clearest sign Trump knew he lost was the fact that Trump himself appeared in the spin room to defend his debate performance on Tuesday night.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m., the former president shuffled into the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where an armada of surrogates, including Robert Kennedy Jr., Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, former adviser Stephen Miller, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — as well as running mate, J.D. Vance — had been struggling mightily to make a case that Trump did anything other than burst into flames on the stage…

The former president’s visit to the spin room caught much of Team Trump by surprise. Some aides received word he would be appearing only just before he walked in, accompanied by an entourage including top advisers like Steven Cheung, Boris Epshteyn, and Corey Lewandowski, a source familiar with the matter says.

Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign official who was present for the mad dash to shove cameras in Trump’s face, said Trump’s surprise appearance “shows fearlessness and confidence. Kamala Harris would never do it.” A Harris aide, who got swept up into the large huddle as Trump entered the spin room, remarked that it was a mistake for the former president to appear and that it looked “desperate.” …

He was right to be concerned, as his team was struggling to cast the performance as anything less than a cataclysmic disaster for Trump. Asked to address directly whether Trump had a bad night, Cotton said he had not seen “any of the commentary.” Asked why Trump didn’t detail any plans for his next term, Cotton said simply, “You don’t have to worry about what Donald Trump is going to do — you know what he’s going to do.” Lara Trump, his Republican National Committee co-chair, bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t enough focus during the debate on immigration.

Even the dead-eyed Miller was having trouble defending Trump’s fixating during the debate on conservatives’ racist, debunked claims about Haitian immigrants eating cats in Springfield, Ohio. (“They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country,” Trump said on Tuesday.) Miller repeatedly referenced a 911 call raising concerns about geese instead; Gaetz referred to the same call when questioned…

It was California Gov. Gavin Newsom, though, who offered one of the most prescient observations early in the night. Asked how significant the debate would be in the grand scheme of things, he predicted it would make a difference — because of the way Trump himself would react.

“Donald Trump will not be capable of not overreacting to how badly he did tonight over the course of the next days,” Newsom said, roughly 40 minutes before Trump made his shock appearance in the spin room. “I think this will shape shift in a way that’s even more profound than the evening itself — we will see him reacting to this for weeks and weeks and weeks, with his pity party and his grievance mindset. I’m sure he’ll be complaining about the refs and the rules for weeks.”

“Clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that.” ??pic.twitter.com/WpZZlPBhWH

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 11, 2024

Tim Miller, at the Bulwark, “Inside Trump’s Spin Room From Hell”:

WHEN IT COMES TO SPIN ROOMS there is one unimpeachable truism that political hacks of all stripes can agree on: A winning candidate needn’t show up there.

So when the Secret Service arrived at the Pennsylvania Convention Center after Tuesday night’s presidential debate across the street at the National Constitution Center, the room began to buzz. We all knew which of the night’s two combatants felt compelled to appear before the assembled press.

The one who spent the evening on the receiving end of a spanking.

Burnt-sienna face paint melting around the edges, shoulders sagging, lips and neck hole pursed, Donald Trump shambled over to the bank of cameras. Reporters shouted questions about his bizarre claim that immigrants were eating pets. They wondered if he would debate his foe again, why he was so rattled by her, and whether he was disappointed that she had earned the coveted Taylor Swift endorsement…

Standing in the back, I tried to get in the mix, shouting repeatedly—to one communications staffer’s great annoyance—about Trump’s inability even to look in the alpha dog vice president’s general direction. “Why wouldn’t you even look at her?” I yelled out again and again…

There is no job in politics less fun than being the spin-room representative for a loser. Trust me, I’ve been there. You stand underneath a placard with your name, but you raise it only to half-mast in the hopes that the media jackals find some other prey first.

Just after Trump’s lame spin-room performance, I encountered Trump spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, a onetime establishment type I knew a little bit. He was huddled closely with one of the Washington Examiner’s MAGA content generators, Byron York. I leaned over and observed that Murtaugh had found a friendly voice. “Byron will write you something good,” I said. As Murtaugh grimaced at me, York grunted out “Fuck you.”

Then there was Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, who hip-checked me following a debate eight years ago. After a brief reminiscence about those spin rooms past, I asked him what he thought Trump’s best answer was at the debate. “There were so many good answers,” he said before briskly departing my company. His former partner-in-crime David Bossie was even more flummoxed by that query. “That’s a good question. You are putting me on the spot,” he said, retreating to an easier subject, the former president’s record…

Coming off the MSNBC set, I caught California Governor Gavin Newsom, smile wide, hair uncharacteristically unkempt. Our last encounter was in a similar setting two months prior, following his attempt to put on a brave face for Joe Biden.

He locked eyes with me and immediately launched into a victorious spiel. “From minute one she owned him,” he said. “Now he knows her name.”

He then repeated the victor’s name purposefully. Each syllable in staccato.

“Kah-muh-luh. Kah-muh-luh.”

Absolutely fascinating.

Google searches for voter registration spiked during debate when Trump gave awful answer to January 6th question (whether he has any regret for what he did that day) and Harris called him out for it.@OutFrontCNN rolls tape and shows chart.

cc: @pbump pic.twitter.com/ScuviL8uE8

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 12, 2024