Former Reagan speechwriter on debate: Trump ‘cleaned his own clock’

Former President Reagan speechwriter John Podhoretz said former President Trump caused problems for himself during the ABC News debate Tuesday night. 

“He cleaned his own clock, and when he didn’t clean his own clock, she cleaned his clock, and when she didn’t, Muir and David cleaned his clock,” Podhoretz, now working as an editor at Commentary Magazine, wrote Tuesday night on the social platform X.

“In the end, his clock was cleaned,” he added. “He smudged her clock face a little.” 

Podhoretz’s assessment of the debate comes as a CNN flash poll, conducted by SRSS, found 63 percent of registered voters who watched the debate said Harris outperformed Trump, who was considered the winner by the remaining 37 percent.

The debate in Philadelphia was the first time the nominees had met in person. Harris had a sharp performance, battling the former president on the economy, immigration, foreign policy, abortion and other policy issues. The vice president’s game plan to rattle her Republican rival seemed to have worked, with Trump, at times, looking visibly irritated. 

Podhoretz, who also served as a speechwriter for former President George H.W. Bush, credited ABC journalists David Muir and Linsey Davis for their performance during the debate, but conservatives criticized them. Muir and Davis fact-checked the ex-president’s false and misleading claims, something that did not happen during CNN’s June debate, when Trump debated President Biden.