Emerging details behind the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump suggest that by the second commercial break, Harris was totally in control—and Trump knew he was blowing it.
As soon as the stagehands announced that the duo were clear for the four-minute commercial break, Trump lunged off the stage and away from the former prosecutor, letting a heavy sigh escape his pursed lips, according to CBS News’s Sara Cook.
While he was gone, Harris reportedly spent half of the break writing nonstop on her sheet of paper, only pausing to fix her hair.
“She then reviewed what she wrote for the next minute, making a few tweaks, before putting the pen down and looking out around the room with her hands folded in front of her. She took a sip of water from a glass placed under the lectern,” reported Cook.
Trump reemerged behind the podium with 30 seconds to air. The candidates did not look at each other, but stared straight ahead until the program resumed.
In the aftermath of the debate, Trump has baselessly attempted to claim that every postdebate poll has indicated he won the face-off. A CNN flash poll after the debate indicated that 63 percent of Americans felt that Harris outperformed Trump.
Meanwhile, conservatives have spent the better part of the day lamenting Trump’s performance, with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham decrying the MAGA leader’s performance as a “disaster.”