CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings on Tuesday placed his face into his palms when Vice President Kamala Harris’ former communications director Jamal Simmons asserted former President Donald Trump lost his first presidential debate of 2024.
Trump debated President Joe Biden on June 27, and the president’s poor performance led to high-profile calls for him to end his reelection bid, which he did on July 21. Simmons, on “CNN News Central,” said Trump actually lost the debate because the Democrats replaced Biden with Harris, who the former official described as a superior candidate.
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“Look, Trump right now is zero for one when it comes to debates, right? Like he may think that he won that debate, but it might be that he actually lost the war because of that debate,” Simmons said. “Because after that debate, Joe Biden left. And when Joe Biden left, he ended up with Kamala Harris, so he should be careful.”
Jennings facepalmed and laughed when Simmons claimed Trump lost the debate.
“Zero for one? Jamal, Jamal, my brother and colleague … He literally ran a man who’d been in politics for 52 years out of his chosen profession over a debate,” Jennings said. “I mean, look, I understand what you’re arguing, that you all traded in for a better candidate, but Trump won the debate. He is not zero for one. Are you saying he actually did so well that he did badly?”
“This is exactly the problem with campaigns. Very often people are focused on the minutiae of what it means in this tack or that tack,” Simmons answered. “But the question is, are you winning the fundamental argument? And for right now, Donald Trump may have tactically won the debate, but strategically, it may have cost him the entire election, because he ended up with a much better candidate than the one he was aiming for. And he’s probably now a couple of points behind.”
Trump and Harris are slated for a Sept. 10 debate on ABC News. Simmons recently warned Democrats not to overestimate how well the vice president will perform against Trump in the debate.
“Remember this, Kamala Harris hasn’t been in a debate since she debated Mike Pence four years ago,” Simmons previously said. “Donald Trump has been in a couple of debates since then … She has not been in this debate format, so I think Democrats should give her a little bit of space to have maybe a slow start, give her a little bit of space to have some time to learn how to do the debate format again.”
“She’s going to do very well against Donald Trump. She’s got a lot of bullets in her arsenal, but let’s not oversell what’s going to happen this debate. Donald Trump will not be a whimpering pile of tears when the debate’s over,” he added.
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