When Ronald Reagan lost a debate in 1980, he grudgingly acknowledged that he’d performed poorly. When Barack Obama struggled in a 2012 debate, the Democrat joked about his performance on “The Tonight Show.” When Joe Biden fell far short in a debate a few months ago, he apologized to supporters.
When Donald Trump lost a debate last week, he responded in a more Trumpian way. The New York Times reported on the Republican candidate’s rally in Las Vegas late last week.
Over the course of an hour and 20 minutes, Mr. Trump ranted about the moderators of Tuesday’s debate. … And even as Mr. Trump continued to insist that he had been victorious in the debate — though some of his allies have acknowledged he had a rough outing — he accused Ms. Harris of wearing an earpiece in their matchup, a baseless claim that has proliferated on right-wing social media. And he said that Ms. Harris had obtained the questions in advance, an assertion for which there has been no proof.
This was, incidentally, a speech in which the GOP nominee was supposed to talk about the economy.
To be sure, Trump didn’t have to talk about the debate at all. He also could’ve shrugged off his failure, argued that debates aren’t important, or told a self-deprecating joke or two.
Instead, the Republican told his followers that he’d “heard” — from whom, he did not say — that Kamala Harris received the questions in advance (she did not) and wore an earpiece that allowed her to cheat (which is utterly false).
At his Las Vegas rally, former President Trump is now spreading the baseless conspiracy theory that Vice President Kamala Harris had an earpiece in her ear which enabled her advisors to share answers with her while the debate was in progress.
This conspiracy theory was started… pic.twitter.com/KNDsM5trTE








