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Comment from Donald Trump's debate audience causes confusion: “You've gone crazy”


Comment from Donald Trump's debate audience causes confusion: “You've gone crazy”

Donald Trump said when he was fact-checked by moderators during his presidential debate with Kamala Harris, the audience “went crazy.” However, there was no audience at the debate hosted by ABC.

Appearance on the Fox News show Gutfeld! On Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate said the “audience” reacted to his unfair treatment during the debate against the vice president.

“They didn’t correct her (Harris) once, and they corrected me,” Trump said. “Everything I said was practically, I think, nine or 11 times. And the audience went absolutely crazy.”

“And the reality, I thought, I walked away saying, 'That was a great debate, I loved it.'”

The clip was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by user @Acyn, senior digital editor at liberal website MeidasTouch.

The debate moderators checked Trump five times in the debate and Harris zero times.

There was no audience present for the live broadcast. The former president may have been referring to the television audience.

Every time Trump was fact-checked, he had said something demonstrably false, including claiming that Harris' Vice President Tim Walz supported the execution of newborn babies and that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, “eat the pets of the people who live there.” . The later-circulated claim was refuted by the city manager, the Republican governor of Ohio, and three of the locals who started the rumor (Anthony Harris, Anna Kilgore, and Erika Lee, all of whom apologized to their Haitian neighbors).

Trump and his running mate JD Vance continue to stand by the claim.

Trump continued to insist that he had won the debate. However, a majority of Newsweek Reader, Newsweek Writers, many analysts and Republican strategists declared it a Harris victory.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump during the TV presidential debate against Kamala Harris in Philadelphia. Trump said that when he was fact-checked by moderators in last week's presidential debate, the audience went “crazy.” There was no audience…


Alex Brandon/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The gaffe comes amid ongoing concerns about Trump's age and mental fitness. If elected, at 78 years old, he would be the oldest US president ever to serve in office.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign team for comment.

In recent rally speeches, he confused Pennsylvania with North Carolina, Afghanistan with Alaska, and in May called former President Jimmy Carter “Jimmy Connors.”

For example, polling site FiveThirtyEight's presidential election forecast released on Wednesday expected Harris to win all seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – that will be closely watched this fall.

Six of the seven — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — were won by narrow margins in 2020 by President Joe Biden.

The FiveThirtyEight forecast also gave Harris a 66 percent chance of winning in November, compared to Trump's 34 percent chance.

Another poll aggregator's election model, Nate Silver, still gives Trump a higher chance of winning – 52 percent to 47.6 percent – although the gap has narrowed since the debate.

The former president had a 61.3 percent chance on debate day, while Harris had a 38.4 percent chance.

Meanwhile, betting odds market Polymarket gives Harris a 52 percent chance of winning versus 47 percent for Trump.

Follow Newsweek's live blog for election updates.

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