In a Saturday op-ed for The Hill , columnist and CBS News legal analyst Kimberly Wehle argued that Donald Trump’s contentious debate performance against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday was “a gift to American Democracy.”
The law professor pointed to the Republican’s response to Chris Wallace’s push to condemn white supremacists and his attacks on Joe Biden’s son’s history of addiction and suggested these two incidents revealed Trump’s “true character” to America.
“Cornered on the stage with Biden and facing pointed questions from Wallace, Trump was unabashed about his nefarious strategy for staying — or, in his words, securing ‘a continuation’ in office.”
According to Wehle, Trump’s strategy for winning the election is to “replace the Constitution itself” instead of appealing to voters on issues like health care, climate change, and the economy. In particular, the writer argued that Trump’s actions run contrary to the 20th, 22nd, and 12th Amendments, as well as Article II of the Constitution.
“That Trump even suggests staying in office by disfiguring and delegitimizing the electoral process in the United States is not news,” she opined.
“But seeing him string the pieces of his strategy all together in a vicious face-off with the mild-mannered Biden struck a chord with some people.
Wehle noted that Trump’s performance might have even swayed some former supporters. The author concluded her piece by arguing that the president’s debate performance was a boon for America as it brought people closer to seeing Trump’s true character and intentions.
According to The New York Times /Siena College surveys, likely voters in Florida and Pennsylvania, two states critical for his re-election, were overwhelmingly “repelled” by the president’s behavior during the first debate. In particular, the data showed that Biden leads the Democrat by seven points in Pennsylvania and five points in Florida.
Elsewhere, polls for Trump were more promising. As reported by Investor’s Business Daily , a new IBD/TIPP Poll taken after the debate found that the U.S. leader narrowed Biden’s lead among likely voters down to 2.7 points. Despite this increase in standing, the publication noted that Americans registered to vote viewed Biden as the winner of the debate by double-digit margins.
As The Inquisitr reported, a post-debate poll from Rasmussen Reports — one of the only pollsters to predict Trump’s win in 2016 — showed that the president received a bump in his approval rating after the debate. In particular, his job approval increased from 46 to 49 percent, and his disapproval decreased from 53 to 51 percent.
