EXCLUSIVE: The Trump campaign is doubling down on former President Trump’s debate performance this week, calling it a clear victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, despite recent reports that Harris is gaining momentum in battlegrounds Georgia and North Carolina.
“Their little reaction to the debate and performance is nothing but a sugar high, and it’s artificial, and it’s based entirely on the fact that she came out and she managed to deliver her memorized lines, and she put on a fine performance, which we anticipated she was going to do, because she’s able to go out and memorize things and go out and put on a performance,” senior Trump campaign adviser Tim Murtaugh told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday.
“They placed so much emphasis on that debate, and so many millions of people tuned in to hear why she was running for president, because they had heard that she’d been in hiding most of the time, and they were expecting her to explain the rationale for what her record is and what her goals would be as president and what her plans would be. And they walked away not having heard or learned anything,” he said.
The campaign’s assessment comes as Trump himself said Thursday he will not be doing any more debates.
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Nate Silver, a polling expert who runs the Silver Bulletin, revealed on Thursday who he’s going to support for president. (Getty Images)
While debate watchers initially gave the victory to Harris after Tuesday’s showdown, there are still six toss-up states on the map worth a combined 78 electoral votes. The election is still considered up for grabs for either candidate.
As of Thursday, Trump has lost his edge in Georgia and North Carolina in the latest Fox News Power Rankings, giving Harris a lead in the overall forecast for the first time.
Over the last 12 months of the Fox News Poll, between 48%-50% of registered voters have said they supported Trump. While Biden polled as low as 45% earlier this year, Harris is now only one point behind Trump at 49% in the latest Fox national survey.
Criminal indictments, a conviction, the primaries, a last-minute change in opponents and an assassination attempt did nothing to move the former president out of that three-point range.
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A prominent pro-life group isn’t pleased with ABC News debate moderator Linsey Davis over a fact-check of former President Trump. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
But Murtaugh believes Trump had “a strong performance” and that he refused to let Harris “escape her liberal record and her responsibility in the Biden-Harris administration.”
Murtaugh pointed to Harris’ flip-flop record in which she’s tried to distance herself from her former progressive record.
“And everyone knows what they are. It’s fracking, it’s the wall, it’s making illegal immigration or making illegally crossing the border not illegal. She reversed herself on outlawing health insurance that people get from their employer,” Murtaugh said. “She reversed herself on gun confiscation. She’s reversed herself on a variety of tax cuts. You know, she’s actually even reversed herself on plastic straws.”
“And she also needed to try to separate herself from the Biden-Harris administration,” Murtaugh said. “And she absolutely did not do that. And so while the pundits might think, ‘Oh, wow, what a great performance she put on,’ because she went out and did her lines, in fact, the truth is, the grocery store will not let you buy food with style points.”
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Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (Screenshot: Fox News simulcast of ABC News Presidential Debate)
On top issues like the economy, Trump clearly has the upper hand, according to polls. In a CNN poll conducted after the debate, 55% of voters preferred Trump’s economic platform compared to Harris’, trailing behind at 35%.
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And while pundits and debate watchers called the victory for Harris, middle-of-the-road voters may not have been convinced, according to Reuters and the New York Times’ interviews with undecided voters.
“She needed to connect with these people and convince them that she wasn’t hiding and that she is a serious candidate, and she failed. You don’t get another chance to make a first impression on those people,” Murtaugh said.
Fox News Digital’s Remy Numa contributed to this report.