Former President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump was swiftly called out after he took to X, formerly Twitter, to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris over his "generic talk" during last night's presidential debate—only for his complaints to blow up in his face.
In the middle of the proceedings, Eric Trump posted the following critique of Harris:
"Kamala’s Strategy: Lots of generic talk about absolutely nothing…"
You can see his post below.
That was rich given Trump's behavior during the event.
Early on, Harris threw Trump off his game after suggesting his rallies are so boring that his own supporters are leaving them, which of course miffed a man with a historic obsession with crowd sizes who as recently as last week said it's "virtually impossible" to speak at his rallies for so long without anyone leaving.
Rather than talk about policy—which his GOP allies have begged him to do for weeks—Trump spent minutes of valuable airtime defending the entertainment value of his rallies.
At one point, Trump even claimed that Harris believes in abortion "after the ninth month," repeating the outrageous claims that blue states allow an abortion to be performed after the baby is born—which would be murder. There is no state, nor has there ever been, anywhere in this country that allows babies to be killed after they're born.
And perhaps most egregiously, Trump promoted the unfounded allegation that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were consuming dogs and other household pets in response to a question about immigration:
"They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame."
All of these statements—and more—served as crystal clear examples of Trump's willingness to traffic in misinformation, especially as it pertains to a nation he once infamously described as a "s**thole country."
Eric Trump was mocked almost immediately.
Trump is clearly not happy after that debate.
NPR reported that Trump "made the unusual move for a presidential candidate to go into the spin room after the debate and talk to reporters," which is "not something that’s normally done when someone has a good debate" and is "usually reserved for low-polling primary candidates, who felt they didn’t get enough time or attention during the debate."
Indeed, Trump used his time in the spin room to cite unscientific online polls from users on X, formerly Twitter, suggesting he won the debate even though those polls don’t at all reflect the actual electorate.
A CNN poll found that 63% of debate-watchers believed Harris won, compared to 37% for Trump, while a YouGov poll showed Harris leading 54% to 31% among registered voters who watched at least part of the debate, with 14% undecided.
Harris's margin of victory was larger than in any of the previous 20 post-debate polls CNN has conducted since 1984. Notably, 31% of Trump supporters also saw Harris as the winner, which is similar to the 30% of President Joe Biden's supporters who thought Trump won the June 27 debate.
While the debate didn't significantly shift many voters' intentions, Trump voters were nearly twice as likely as Harris supporters to say it made them "reconsider" their vote. Approximately one-quarter of Trump supporters said the debate caused them to rethink their decision, with 6% stating it changed their vote and 17% saying it made them reconsider.
