Debate winner: CNN's Candy Crowley. In 2012, she moderated the Romney vs. Obama debate and fact-checked Mitt Romney. lieBut unlike ABC's excellent host on Tuesday night, at least she only did it once.
Now that I'm exhausted by the fact-checking done by ABC's fact-checkers, I want to tell you about a great experiment that pretty definitively determined who won the 2016 Trump vs. Clinton debate.
The media is reporting that Trump screwed up Tuesday night, but that was said in 2016. It's also possible that Kamala Harris gave the exact same impression of doing the MSNBC smirk as Hillary Clinton. You probably forgot this, but in case you did, despite Clinton's supposedly dominating performance in the debate with Trump, she screwed up. There's scientific evidence.
Feminists were delighted when Trump called Clinton a “mean woman” during the debate, and flocked to the venue with “mean woman” T-shirts, pins and backpacks. merchandiseFeminists, as always, keep their finger on the pulse of the country, but she Was dirty.
Trump was responding to Clinton's cheeky remarks while explaining her Social Security plan.
Clinton“My Social Security payroll contributions will go up, and Donald's Social Security payroll contributions will go up.” Assuming he doesn't know how to get out of it But what we want to do is…”
Trump: “What a nasty woman”
Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (right) debates Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 19, 2016. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
To test the feminist theory that Clinton, as a woman, was judged much more harshly than Trump, several professors from New York University and INSEAD designed the perfect test. experimentTwo months after the election, they re-enacted the 2016 debate, but this time with a man playing Clinton and a woman playing Trump.
Professional actors were hired to recreate parts of each of the three debates, using the candidates' exact words, gestures, intonation, and posture. During rehearsals, a screen was even set up behind them showing the actual debates, so that they could accurately recreate the candidates' performances, except with the genders reversed. (For all you confused Gen Z'ers, there were only two genders back then.)
The professors and the (full) audience were stunned by the results: instead of confirming, as NYU professor Joe Salvatore put it, the “liberal assumption” that “women would not accept Trump's behavior and would see Clinton as a much stronger candidate,” the audience hated Clinton and was impressed by Trump.
Salvatore explained the reaction:
“I heard a lot of people say, 'Now I know why this happened.' I mean, that's why Trump won the election. People were upset. A man two rows ahead of me literally had his head in his hands, and someone was rubbing his back. The simplicity of Trump's message was easier to hear when delivered by a woman. That was the theme. One person said, 'I'm really amazed at the precision of Trump's technique.' Another person (who is actually a musical composer) said that Trump created 'hummable lyrics,' whereas Clinton was a talker and everything she said was true and factual, but it didn't have a 'hook.'” (Unfortunately, the Trump craze among musical fans didn't last long.)
One audience member said, [male] Clinton: Really? Can be punched.”
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate with Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on September 10, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
I think the Trump-Harris debate will provoke a similar reaction. Trump is Trump, and he's well known. No one will be surprised by his ramblings. If you already hate Trump, your opinion is confirmed. But if you don't hate Trump, Trump gave him a lot of points and Harris said nothing, just smugly things.
The debate clearly did not give Harris what she hoped for. ReportedThey wait with bated breath for a hint of what she'll do. I believe And what will she do if she becomes president? They are still waiting after the ABC debate. All they know is that Harris comes from a middle-class family (that everyday guy thing worked great for John Kasich!).
But they know life was better under Trump, and they know Harris, like Clinton, is a mean woman.
