Analysis: Takeaways from the Harris-Trump Presidential Debate w/Jon Decker

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now our White House correspondent John Decker, who
was on hand for last night's presidential debate. John, your
assessment from inside of the arena on last night's presidential debate, Well.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Simple assessment, Brian. It was a very bad night for
Donald Trump and it was a good night for the
Vice president. And I know you take my work for things,
but let's just look and see what Lindsey Graham said.
He called it a disaster for Donald Trump. He's one
of his strongest allies in the US Senate. It shows
what preparation does. Four days of preparation by the vice president,

(00:37):
very little preparation. You just can't prepare for debate out
on a golf course, which is what his aid says
today he was doing over the course of the past week.
It shows he can't wing it. And I don't think
that the fact that Donald Trump became more agitated, it
seemed as the debate war on was helpful to his
cause in terms of trying to win this debate and

(01:00):
stall the momentum of Kamala Harris that she's had since
getting into this race almost eight weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And to your point, John, CNN, they always conduct flash
polls with an accredited pollster SSRs following debates, and after
the first one they had Trump winning sixty seven to
thirty three percent. After last night's debate, almost the exact reversal,
sixty three to thirty seven for Harris. I thought, objectively,

(01:29):
what you said. Obviously Harris had the better night, the
better performance here. Also, they're all the debate moderators. You know,
the moderators were not part of the story during the
first debate, and without a doubt, I think objectively they
did interject themselves and become some of the story last night.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, that's one of the problems with being a moderator.
You have to make a conscious decision and CNN did
this in the first debate, whether or not to fact
check the claims that are being made by the candidates.
And CNA made a conscious decision, let's not get involved,
let's not insert ourselves. If there is a false claim

(02:09):
made by Donald Trump or Joe Biden, let the candidates
correct themselves. That's their job in a debate. That's not
what Lindsay Davis and David Muir decided to do in
moderating this debate. They did fact check, and they fact
checked quite a few times during the debate last night,
and it seemed as if for those complaining that the
fact checks all concerned things that Donald Trump was saying.

(02:32):
So that's why that is being mentioned as it relates
to one of the narratives coming from last night, no.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Doubt, and that is a matter of fact. There were
five instances in which they fact checked, and it's questionable
as to their accounting even of the fact checks, but
there are five for Donald Trump, zero for Kamala Harris.
And it wasn't that every single thing she said was
necessarily accurate either.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that's right. You know that she describes the Trump
economy when it was inherited by President Joe Biden, isn't accurate,
you know, talking about the state of that economy, talking
about how it was the worst unemployment inherited in US history.
Not true, that's not true. It was about six point

(03:19):
four percent. That's not the worst economy inherited, inherited by
an incoming president. So that could have been backchecked as well,
if you want to get into things. But I think
it's always important in terms of debates, they're not won
or lost based upon the moderators. If you know, your stuff.
If you know how to handle your opponent, you're gonna
win regardless of who the moderators are. So if Kamala Harris,

(03:42):
for instance, decides to do another debate, it could be
with Fox News, and if she's a good debater, she'll
win that debate one as well. But that is unfortunate
that it becomes a part of this narrative. It's often said,
if you're you're blaming the refs, so to speak, you're losing.
It's it's and I think there's some truth to that.
You know, the fact of the matter is it was

(04:04):
not a good night for Donald Trump, and all of
the complaints about that if debate moderators would not have
made it a better night for Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, I think that's fair. I think the NFL also
takes a look at the way that revs have weighed
in and key games before and made adjustments on it.
So I think there is truth in both of those.
I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. There's
question question about whether there is going to be another debate.
As you mentioned, Harris's team has indicated that they would

(04:35):
do another debate. Do you have an expectation that could
come together.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think that's a head fake quite frankly, Brian. They
may say that publicly, and they have said that publicly,
but you know, think about a boxing match. You just
won the heavyweight crown, so to speak. She didn't win
the heavy great crown, you know, literally, but you just
had a good debate performance. You according to as you say,
two thirds of voters one Why would you give your

(05:00):
opponent immediately another opportunity? So what we heard in an
interview that Donald Trump did on Fox News last night
when he came to the media filing Center the Spin
room where I was located, was that he does not
want to take part in another debate, and so I
think it's unlikely we're going to see another presidential debate
between now and November the fifth.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, I agree with you on that. I would be
surprised as well.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
John.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Really appreciate the time of the insight as always, look
forward to talking to you soon.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Thanks so much, Brian, have a great day. Thanks for
having me on today. We'll talk to him. Bye bye.