House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said former President Trump “clearly won” over Vice President Harris during Tuesday's ABC News debate, praising her “integrity” and arguing that moderates have leaned to the Democratic candidate.
“Let me put it bluntly: President Donald Trump is the current presidential debate champion. He won last night's debate 3-1, and he clearly won,” Johnson said during an appearance on Fox Business Network's “Mornings with Maria” on Wednesday morning with guest anchor Cheryl Cusone.
“I saw seven or eight viewer polls this morning,” Johnson continued. “Newsmax had it 93-6 for Trump. C-SPAN had it 65-35 for Trump. The Daily Caller had it 73-9, 73-8, something like that. I gave the hosts 19 points for being too biased against the other side, having Trump fact-check the show and him ignoring it.”
Tuesday night's debate marked the first time Harris and Trump have met in person.
Democratic candidate Harris performed well on ABC News, battling the former president on the economy and immigration, two of the main issues in the election, while also taking aggressive stances on abortion and foreign policy. One of Harris' aims on Tuesday night was to upset the former president, and she appeared to succeed in that goal, as Trump appeared to be annoyed at times by her attacks.
New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu offered a different assessment, telling CNN that Harris “certainly won” the first debate.
Johnson said Harris' performance Tuesday night was an “act” and that she misrepresented her own record.
“So she went out last night and delivered her lines like she was an actor in a play,” he said Wednesday morning. “But that's the thing. It was acting, it was fake. She lied about her record. She lied about President Trump's record, and she got away with it.”
A new YouGov poll, released just hours after the party's nominees were due to face off, found that 43% of respondents thought Harris won the debate, 28% said Trump won, and about 30% said they didn't know.
The chairman said voters valued Trump's “credibility” and predicted the former president would win again in November's election.
“What people really appreciate about President Trump is his honesty,” Johnson said. “He's real. He's from the heart. He exposed a lot of her policy failures, and it took him five hours to uncover them. That's the problem. She's trying to act like she's a completely different person than what we know her to be. Her record shows that it's a travesty.”
“They are running an election campaign based on fantasy, not fact,” he added, “but I can tell you, people will vote on merit, not words, and we are going to win this election.”
