Former President Donald Trump expressed his deeply delusional "one regret" about his debate performance against Vice President Kamala Harris in a Fox News interview, lamenting that he was too "elegant" toward the debate moderators.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Trump, during an appearance on Gutfeld!, said:
"I think my only regret is that I wanted to be elegant and I didn't want to go after the anchors. I wish I did, in a way."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
During the debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked several of Trump’s false or misleading claims, including an unfounded assertion that immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Following the debate, Trump’s allies voiced their anger at ABC News, accusing the Disney-owned network of bias in its handling of the event.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was widely criticized after she melted down in a profane rant about Muir and Davis, saying Trump cannot be blamed for his poor debate performance because both moderators were "biased" against him, implying they'd colluded so Harris could win the debate, and suggested Trump was no match for "three against one."
However, there is no question that Trump's behavior—including the considerable time he spent defending the entertainment value of his rallies after Harris baited him by noting that people leave them—cost him the debate.
A CNN snap poll conducted immediately after the debate found that 63% of debate-watchers believed Harris won, compared to 37% for Trump, while a YouGov poll showed Harris leading 54% to 31% among registered voters who watched at least part of the debate, with 14% undecided.
Other polls since the debate paint a similar picture. A survey from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday found that 56% of viewers believed Harris won, while only 27% thought Trump came out on top. The poll also indicated that Americans found Harris to be more truthful than Trump during the debate.
As for Trump's "one regret" about his performance...well, people online had thoughts.
Ahead of his interview, Trump asserted that "every single poll" declared him the debate winner, pointing to unscientific, easily gamed polls from social media and conservative media outlets as proof of his triumph.
But Harris currently holds a narrow lead against Trump in two key battleground states and is virtually tied in a third, according to polls released Wednesday following last week’s debate.
New Quinnipiac University polls show Harris leading Trump by 5 points in Michigan and Pennsylvania, with 51% to his 46%. In Wisconsin, Harris is ahead by just 1 point, within the poll's 3-point margin of error.
An AARP poll released the same day confirmed the race in Wisconsin is "neck and neck," with Harris leading Trump 49% to 48%. Voters aged 50 and older favor Trump by 3 points, though Harris leads among seniors 65 and older by 6 points.
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