In one of the more humorous takes following the presidential debate, CNN host and political commentator Van Jones said that Vice President Kamala Harris “whooped” her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.
“She got up there and she put him in his place. She baited him and then she spanked him. She baited him and then she spanked him,” Jones told a CNN panel immediately after the debate. “Not only did she pass the commander in chief test, he failed it.”
Jones said Harris’ performance was a sort of “wish fulfillment,” adding that “people have wanted to see somebody put this bully in his place, and people have watched contender after contender fail to put him in his place.”
“I mean, you could see the punches coming he couldn’t get out of the way,” Jones said.
In the CNN host’s opinion, Harris passed the “commander-in-chief” test at the same time the former president, who actually was commander-in-chief, failed it.
Longtime CNN anchor Anderson Cooper largely agreed with the assessment. “I mean if you can, so unhinge somebody by saying people leave your rally—any world leader can manipulate you into anything,” Cooper said.
Harris and Trump’s debate performances have divided critics—a stark difference between the first debate between the former president and President Joe Biden when he was still running at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Jones, who once served as an advisor in the Obama White House, was quick to express disappointment in Biden after the first debate in June. “I worked for Joe Biden. He didn’t do well at all,” Jones said. “I love that guy. That’s a good man. He loves his country. He’s doing the best that he can. But he had a test to meet tonight to restore the confidence of the country and of the base. And he failed to do that.”
Conservative critics, including Fox News commentator Jesse Watters, were a lot less bullish on Harris’ performance. “I don’t think the American people are watching and thinking any of these people won,” Watters told a panel immediately after the debate, before praising the former president’s jokes throughout the debate.
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