House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Donald Trump was the clear winner of Tuesday night’s debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris, breaking from reality.
Johnson told FOX Business Network on Wednesday that Trump is still the “presidential debate champion” citing polls from pro-Trump outlets after the debate and blaming moderators.
“Well, I will tell you what, President Donald Trump is the reigning presidential debate champion, and even though the contest was three to one last night, he clearly prevailed,” Johnson said.
“I looked at seven or eight polls this morning, viewer polls,” Johnson continued. “I mean, Newsmax had him win in 93 to six. C-SPAN had him 65-35 as the victor. The Daily Caller says it was 73 to nine, something like 73 to eight. They gave 19 points to the moderators because they were so lopsided for the other side, fact-checking only Trump and allowing her to skate through that.”
Johnson said that Harris’ performance was an “act” while Trump’s was “authentic”
“So, she went out last night and delivered the lines as if she was an actor in a play. But, that’s the thing. It’s an act. It was phony. She lied about her record. She lied about President Trump’s record, and she got away with it,” he said.
“The thing that people appreciate so much about President Trump is his authenticity,” Johnson added. “He is real. It comes from the heart. He did expose so many of her policy failures, but he needed five hours to unfurl them. That’s the problem. She is trying to pretend that she is somebody totally different than we know that she is and her entire record shows, and it’s a farce.”
During the debate, Harris delivered aggressive attacks and coherent rebuttals which rattled Trump, causing him to lose control and wasted valuable time promoting debunked conspiracy theories about abortion and immigration and outright lies about the economy and foreign policy.
Numerous polls released after the debate shows Harris as the clear winner.
Also, several Republicans, including members of the House GOP conference, had a different assessment of Trump’s performance than Johnson.
“I’m just sad. She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin. Just overall disappointing that he isn’t being more composed like the first debate,” an unnamed pro-Trump lawmaker told the Hill. “The road just got very narrow. This is not good.”
“She talks to us like toddlers but is doing a good job provoking him. He [is] right on policy but can’t keep to a message,” another lawmaker said. “Many are disappointed he couldn’t stay focused or land a punch. Not sure much changes but it wasn’t a good performance.”
“Kamala definitely won the debate,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said during a CNN interview. “There’s no question about that. So the question is, what does it mean, right? And it’s not just, what does it mean to everybody? What’s going to do that 10 percent of swing voters?”