The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin knows Donald Trump better than most. She was his Special Assistant in the White House from October 2017 to September 2019, at which point she was promoted to the Press Secretary to the Pentagon and to the Department of Defense — the youngest person ever to take this prestigious role.
So, while we’ll never trust anyone who signed up to be a part of the Trump administration, we will take her seriously in her evaluation of Trump’s personality. And let’s just say her opinion of her former boss’ performance in his debate against Kamala Harris isn’t particularly rosy:
Goading Trump was always going to be the Harris campaign’s strategy, and the Trump campaign must have known it was coming. Doubtless in debate preparation they urged Trump to stay focused on the issues and not to go ham on every little jab to his ego. But you really can’t teach an old dog new tricks and Harris poking fun at the sizes of crowds at his rallies was like showing a red rag to a bull.
Doubtless drawing on her prosecutorial experience Harris was able to manipulate her opponent into some truly bizarre situations, culminating in his unhinged rant about eating dogs, bizarre pronouncements about killing babies and, yes, his dogged insistence that the extremely centrist Kamala Harris is actually a die-hard Marxist.
Did this tactic pay off for Trump? *taps ear* The polls are saying “no!” A CNN flash poll suggested that a full two-thirds of viewers concluded that Harris had defeated Trump. Even among Trump supporters the news wasn’t great, with 31% of them conceding that their guy had walked straight into every obvious trap Harris laid out in front of him.
Trump has, all too predictably, claimed the debate was rigged against him and that he never stood a chance against the moderators. But nobody made him say all those weird things in front of the nation, so we’re going to blame his nano-thin skin for this mess. And as for Griffin’s takeaway on Trump after last night:
We couldn’t agree more. It’s worth remembering that Harris’ debate victory is by no means a sign she has the election in the bag. The end result may well be decided by a few thousand voters in swing states so there is still all to play for. Let’s hope they all watched this frothing egomaniac embarrass himself on stage last night and drew the right conclusion.