Donald Trump‘s “bad night” debating Vice President Kamala was punctuated by one particularly damaging moment, according to former GOP Lieutenant Governor of Georgia Geoff Duncan.
Trump and Harris met for the first time during Tuesday night’s event in Philadelphia. While both candidates declared victory afterward, most pundits and polls said the Democrats‘ nominee delivered the winning performance.
Duncan, one of a handful of Republicans to endorse Harris at last month’s Democratic National Convention, said during a CNN appearance on Wednesday afternoon that Harris had “the upper hand.”
“I do think that one of the most damning things that he did the entire night is not commit to defending Ukraine,” Duncan said. “I think that spooks so many different angles in this world.”
He asked: “Could you imagine being in Ukraine or Poland and thinking somebody is going to walk in day one?”
Former President Donald Trump debates Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia Tuesday night. According to the majority of pundits and polls, Harris won the debate, but Trump has insisted that “every single poll” shows he was the winner.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Duncan went on to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin “had a smirk on his face and leaned up in his chair” when Trump “made those awful assumptions that he wasn’t going to support Ukraine.”
Trump refused to directly answer a question from ABC News debate moderator David Muir about whether he wants “Ukraine to win” its war with Russia, instead insisting that he would “get the war settled” immediately by using his negotiation skills.
The former president falsely claimed that “people are being killed by the millions” in the war while predicting that he would end the conflict even before taking office after winning the election.
Duncan also said on Wednesday that the debate “only helped one candidate, and that’s Kamala Harris.” The former lieutenant governor argued that Trump was “grasping at straws” by trying to claim victory.
“In its simplest form: Kamala Harris had a really good night, Donald Trump had a really bad night,” he said. “And her upward trajectory is going to continue.”
He went on: “It’s gonna be interesting to watch how much worse Donald Trump…reacts to getting punched in the face in the public square.”
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump campaign via email on Wednesday.
The limited number of scientific polls that were conducted and released after the debate indicated that a clear majority of Americans believe Harris was the winner.
A CNN/SSRS flash poll found that 63 percent of debate watchers said that Harris won, while 37 believed that Trump was the winner.
A YouGov poll of registered voters who “watched at least some of the debate” found that 54 percent thought Harris was the winner, while only 31 percent said the same of Trump and 14 percent were undecided.
Trump has falsely claimed that “every single poll” shows he won the debate while sharing the results of several unscientific polls from social media and conservative media outlets to his Truth Social account.
