GOP senators express frustration with Trump’s performance at debate
by Alexander Bolton - 09/12/24 6:00 AM ET
Senate Republicans are feeling frustrated and disappointed by former President Trump’s debate performance and his inability to resist taking the bait from Vice President Harris on side issues such as people leaving his rallies early.
GOP lawmakers fear Trump’s irate rants onstage will be the main takeaway for many undecided voters who tuned into the 90-minute debate, and some senators are hesitating over whether Trump should even agree to another one.
GOP senators are also distancing themselves from Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election, which he repeated Tuesday evening.
And they feel bewildered by his wild claim that immigrants are eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, which came in response to a question about why he opposed a bipartisan Senate bill to secure the border.
“She was well-prepared and she didn’t have to keep repeating the same thing,” said one Republican senator, who requested anonymity to vent frustration about Harris’s solid performance and Trump’s lack of discipline.
“Everybody says: Be more disciplined. It’s just not him,” the lawmaker sighed.
The senator said Trump got sidetracked “into other things,” such as the unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants are eating dogs and cats, instead of framing the debate around the two biggest issues of the race: the economy and inflation.
“I don’t even get what that’s about,” the lawmaker said of the pet-eating claim.
“He’s mad, and she keeps talking about the happiness equation. People want to be happy,” the source observed.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis (R) speculated the debate likely pushed some undecided suburban voters in his home state, a key battleground, toward Harris, though he predicted that most voters have already made up their minds in the election.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4875154-trump-debate-performance-frustration/
