Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume said former President Trump had a rough outing during the ABC News debate versus Vice President Harris, saying he fell for some of the vice president’s traps and aired “old grievances” that are not advantageous politically.
“Now, look, make no mistake about it, Trump had a bad night. He rose to the bait repeatedly when she baited him, something I’m sure his advisers had begged him not to do,” Hume said on Fox News’ post-debate roundtable Tuesday night.
Hume said that Trump’s responses when facing jabs from Harris were different from when he sparred against President Biden in June on CNN.
“You know, in the first debate, when Biden attacked him, he just kept his cool and kept going,” Hume said. “In this debate he rose to the — and we heard so many of the old grievances that we’d long thought Trump had learned were not winners politically, and there they all were, you know, talking about how he didn’t lose the election and all that.”
The debate was the first time Trump and Harris met face-to-face. Harris had a sound showing, debating the ex-president on foreign policy, immigration, economy and other issues while, at times, getting under his skin and leaving him visibly irritated. A large portion, 63 percent, of registered voters who watched the debate said that Harris outperformed the ex-president, according to CNN’s flash poll. Around 37 percent said that Trump was the winner on Tuesday, the survey found.
“So my sense is that she came out of this in pretty good shape,” Hume said. “Now, how long this will last is anybody’s guess, but for tonight, at least, this was pretty much her night.”
“You’re saying she had a good night?” Fox News anchor Bret Baier then asked Hume.
“I’m saying she certainly did,” he replied.