What Trump And Harris Are Telling Their Followers About The Debate

After Donald Trump and Kamala Harris went head-to-head in the ABC News debate last night, both potential leaders have taken to their social media accounts to share the outcome with their supporters.
But there are big differences in the way the two presidential candidates have decided to share the events with their followers online.
Syracuse University professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley told Newsweek, “Trump is declaring that he won without much to back it up, while Harris is posting clips from Fox News of commentators who say that Trump had a weak performance.”
The former president has been sharing polls on Truth Social that found him to be the winner of the debate, while the vice president has been sharing more videos from the debate itself across a larger range of platforms.
Cornell University Professor Richard Bensel told Newsweek that by sharing the footage of the debate, it is “implicit” that Harris is presenting “just the facts.”
He added that showing the footage also highlights “the age difference between them,” as the clips display “Trump’s relative age without directly mentioning the fact.”
Here’s what the two presidential hopefuls are telling their followers about the events of the evening.
While Trump didn’t post any updates on his X account, Harris posted most actively on the platform, sharing several videos of the debate as well as a large number of comments on Trump’s policies and time as former president.
One video included the moment when Harris spoke of all things Trump “left” the U.S. with after his time as president, such as “the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.”
However, this claim was fact-checked by Poynter and found to be false. The outlet reported that during Trump’s time as president, in April 2020, unemployment spiked to a record high of 14.8 percent, but had reduced to 6.4 percent by December of that same year while he was still in office.
Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign for comment via email.
Another video posted by Harris’ X account shared the moment Harris said that Trump was “fired by 81 million people,” when he wasn’t re-elected as president in 2020 and that he was “having a very difficult time processing that.”
She also posted a series of other posts commenting on the debate, including how she “was raised a middle-class kid,” and is “the only person on the debate stage tonight who has a plan to lift up the middle class and working people of America,” while saying Trump “doesn’t have a plan for you.”
The former president didn’t use his TikTok platform to share news about the debate, and Harris’ account shared just two videos relating to the debate, making TikTok the least active platform following the debate by the political candidates.
The two videos shared by Harris on TikTok included the moment shared on X of her talking about the things Trump “left” the U.S., and one in which she talked about Trump’s record on abortion, and said she would “proudly sign” the protections of Roe v Wade back into law, if elected as president.
Trump was particularly active on Truth Social, which he owns, where he has shared a number of infographics of social media polls that show him as the winner of the debate.
CNN’s flash poll following the debate found that 63 percent of respondents said Harris had won.
He also shared footage of Jesse Watters saying that all the “memorable lines” in the debate came from Trump, adding that he had some “great knockouts.” He wrote, “Thank you to Jesse Watters for the nice words on my Debate performance. It was a GREAT evening!”
Harris’ campaign has also been posting on the Trump-owned platform, something they’ve done in the past in an apparent attempt to bait him with topics he’s known to care about.
They have focused on posting clips from Fox News that praise her performance, including host Bret Baier saying, “Vice President Harris was clearly well prepared, practiced, and on the offensive much of the night,” while reflecting on last night’s debate.
Another clip included footage of Harold Ford Jr, saying, “I’ve got reaction from Republican friends saying ‘trainwreck’ and ‘he needs this to end,'” when reflecting on Trump’s performance.
Stromer-Galley described Truth Social “a conservative-leaning and largely pro-Trump platform.”
She said that Harris’ campaign presence there underscores the “efforts to try and speak to on-the-fence and more moderate Republicans who are undecided,” by using the Fox news commentators to “make the argument for her.”
Bensel also believes the key for Harris is to target this audience. He told Newsweek, “This is an instance where the only audience that matters is those few voters who are still ambivalent between Harris and Trump.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.
Both political candidates also posted stories on Instagram following the debate. Harris posted the moment she disparaged Trump’s rallies, while Trump shared some of the same social-media polls from his Truth Social account on his story, all of which indicated respondents thought he had won.
Newsweek writers have given their views on the outcome of the debate but are also inviting readers to share their opinions with us here.
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