In recent decades, every presidential debate has featured something called a “spin room.” The idea is entirely straightforward: News organizations covering the debate want to hear from prominent voices and get their reactions, so the candidates and their campaigns deploy surrogates to a designated area at the venue to say flattering things.
After Donald Trump failed spectacularly during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republican did something extremely unusual: The former president went to the spin room himself to tell everyone how impressed he was with himself.
The appearance had the opposite of the intended goal. In fact, one reporter asked Trump, “If you’re so confident you won tonight, why are you here? Why not let the performance speak for itself?”
It was a good question for which there was no good answer. Successful candidates not only avoid the spin room, they don’t feel the need to be there.
Around the same time, in the same spin room, Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke to The Bulwark’s Tim Miller about the debate, and the South Carolina Republican — who was ostensibly there to serve as a surrogate for his party’s nominee — was unexpectedly frank. From Miller’s report:
Eventually, Graham offered a fist bump, leaned in, and with an exasperated grin gave me his candid assessment of the night: Trump’s performance was a “disaster,” Trump was unprepared, and his debate team should be fired.
As a rule, when a candidate’s allies respond to a debate by talking about firing the campaign’s debate team, it’s safe to say the event didn’t go well.
Graham wasn’t the only Republican who expressed dissatisfaction. The Hill reported: ‘I’m just sad,’ one House Republican who is supportive of Trump told The Hill. … ‘The road just got very narrow,’ they added. ‘This is not good.’ A second House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, said ‘many’ in the GOP conference were ‘disappointed’ that Trump could not stay on message throughout the debate.
Even Fox News hosts conceded that the Republican nominee struggled. “Look, make no mistake about it, Trump had a bad night,” Brit Hume said, adding that Harris “came out in pretty good shape.” As the dust settled, much of the right, instead of celebrating, lashed out at the debate’s ABC News moderators for occasionally having told viewers the truth, or they spread conspiracy theories about the vice president’s earrings. The morning after the event, Trump told Fox News he believes Harris might’ve secretly received the questions in advance. Not to put too fine a point on this, but these responses only help reinforce what was plainly true: Trump flopped under pressure.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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