The victory lap began before the debate was over.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s aides had prepared for him to face the fiery President Biden who showed up to the State of the Union earlier this year. Instead, the former president faced a shaky opponent whose stumbles sent Democrats into a full-blown panic \u2014 and Trump largely held back from interrupting to let it all unfold, just as allies and advisers had urged.<\/p>\n
Trump gave a thumbs up later as he walked off the stage and into a green room full of advisers who believed they had a new \u2014 and devastating \u2014 trove of ammunition against Biden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of material that the debate produced,\u201d said top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita, who boasted that Thursday night\u2019s performance was \u201cthe most lopsided win in debate history in American politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republicans are elated and view the debate as an inflection point in a race where Trump\u2019s team was already feeling bullish. As some Democrats raised the possibility of replacing Biden on the ticket, Trump aides and allies gloated and said it was too late. \u201cIT\u2019S SO JOE-VER,\u201d one campaign email exulted as Trump prepared for his first post-debate rally Friday afternoon in Virginia, a state Biden won by 10 points four years ago but where some polling now shows a closer race.<\/p>\n
Trump also got another reason to celebrate Friday morning: The Supreme Court ruled that federal prosecutors improperly charged hundreds of defendants with obstruction in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, disrupting many criminal cases stemming from a violent day that Biden has put at the center of his pitch against Trump.<\/p>\n
Still, Biden allies argued Trump had done himself no favors with his answers during the debate as he dodged questions about accepting the results of the election and declined to condemn the Jan. 6 riots. A flash poll by CNN, which hosted the debate, found that registered voters who watched the debate believed Trump won by a wide margin, but 81 percent also said it did not affect their choice in the race. Five percent said the debate changed their minds, while another 14 percent said they reconsidered but ultimately were not swayed in who they planned to vote for.<\/p>\n
A Biden official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal numbers, said the hour after the debate \u2014 from 11 p.m. to midnight \u2014 was its single best hour of fundraising since the campaign\u2019s launch last April and that the campaign raised $14 million on the day of the debate and the morning after.<\/p>\n
But Republicans were jubilant. As Democrats chattered about how to move forward, Trump allies brushed aside the potential threat of a younger Democratic standard-bearer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, it does not matter,\u201d said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who was on-site as a Trump surrogate. \u201cThe agenda remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Biden adviser said Biden is \u201cabsolutely not\u201d dropping out, has been counted out many times before and has proved his doubters wrong.<\/p>\n
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), one of a few top contenders for Trump\u2019s vice presidential running mate, said the debate would boost a campaign that was already \u201con a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what you\u2019re going to see is donations flowing in. You\u2019re going to see President Trump super charged,\u201d Burgum said.<\/p>\n
Biden outraised Trump dramatically for months and used that war chest to build out a much bigger presence in battleground states. But Trump\u2019s criminal conviction on May 30 changed the picture, firing up the GOP base and allowing Trump and the RNC to report more cash on hand than Biden and the DNC in the latest financial disclosures.<\/p>\n
Democrats hope their early spending on the ground will still be hard to match. But Republicans suddenly have more resources to invest \u2014 and now, a debate performance that fulfilled their greatest hopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe debate was an incredible study in contrast between a guy who has the energy to be president and a guy who clearly doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), another leading contender to become Trump\u2019s running mate.<\/p>\n
Several potential vice presidential candidates attended a debate fundraiser on Thursday hosted by RNC chair Michael Whatley and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). They then watched the debate at volleyball court on the Georgia Tech campus. Attendees included Burgum, Vance, and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), according to a person familiar with the gathering who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Lara Trump, the RNC co-chair and Trump\u2019s daughter-in-law, was there as well.<\/p>\n
Vice President Harris defended Biden after the debate, but acknowledged that he had \u201ca slow start.\u201d Biden presented \u201ca very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people,\u201d Harris said on CNN.<\/p>\n
Trump advisers who had spent the lead-up to the debate attacking CNN as biased declared themselves pleased with how the network conducted the event.<\/p>\n
As some Democrats assailed CNN for not fact-checking Trump\u2019s false claims in real time, LaCivita said he thought \u201cCNN met the moment\u201d and said the Trump campaign\u2019s decision to accept CNN and the Biden campaign\u2019s terms \u201cworked out very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is set to speak at 3 p.m. at a rally in Chesapeake, Va., a city that Biden won by about 6 points four years ago. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is expected to join him.<\/p>\n
The Cook Political Report, which provides nonpartisan election analysis, still rates Virginia as likely to go Democratic in the presidential race. But Trump has taken a bullish tone about Virginia as well as Democratic-leaning Minnesota. A recent Trump team memo said the campaign and national party are \u201cin the process of securing leases\u201d for 11 \u201cinitial\u2019 offices in Virginia and eight in Minnesota and \u201cwill have a variety of custom voter contact audiences built for both states\u201d by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Democrats dismiss the Trump team\u2019s moves as bluster. \u201cIf Trump wants to spend his time and money trying to campaign in blue states, be our guest,\u201d said Biden campaign spokesperson Caroline Stoneciper.<\/p>\n
But they also say that from the beginning they have not taken the state for granted. Susan Swecker, the Virginia Democratic Party chair, said in an interview Thursday five new offices for Democrats\u2019 coordinated campaign had just opened in the state, bringing the total to 11. She said she can\u2019t remember any presidential campaign coming in as early with resources as the Biden campaign has.<\/p>\n
Some recent polls have shown Trump and Biden neck-and-neck in Virginia. Dave Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for the Cook Political Report, noted that surveys on the state are limited and said that based on the state\u2019s 2020 results and a national shift in the vote since then, it would make sense for Biden to have a small lead in Virginia.<\/p>\n
For now, he added, \u201ceveryone wants to be on offensive and convey an offensive posture\u2019 by pushing into challenging territory, even if other states are far more likely to decide the race. \u201cIf Virginia is competitive this fall, the election is already over in Trump\u2019s favor,\u201d Wasserman said.<\/p>\n
Arnsdorf and Levine reported from Atlanta. Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The victory lap began before the debate was over. Donald Trump\u2019s aides had prepared for him to face the fiery President Biden who showed up to the State of the Union earlier this year. Instead, the former president faced a shaky opponent whose stumbles sent Democrats into a full-blown panic \u2014 and Trump largely held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}