‘I knew Trump would crack:’ KIRO, KTTH hosts react to the presidential debate

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced each other on the debate stage Tuesday night for the first and possibly the last time.

As The Associated Press noted in its coverage after the event ended, Harris, the Democratic candidate, opened the ABC News Presidential Debate in Philadelphia with “a power move,” marching across the stage the lectern Trump, the Republican, was using to shake his hand. The exchange set the tone for the next 90 minutes, the AP explained. Harris controlled the conversation at times, baiting Trump with jabs at his economic policy, his refusal to concede his 2020 election loss and even his performance at his rallies.

Trump, while measured early on, grew more annoyed as the night went on. But while he was often on defense, but he did drive the core message of his campaign — that inflation and immigration are hammering Americans, the AP also stated.

Plus, one significant moment played out after the two candidates had left the stage, when megastar Taylor Swift said she’ll vote for Harris.

The KIRO Newsradio and KTTH hosts who offered their impressions of the debate to MyNorthwest and separately on the airwaves agreed it was not Trump’s best night at the podium and that Harris succeeded in rattling the former president.

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Ursula Reutin of KIRO Newsradio: Harris got under Trump’s skin

“This was a very good night for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Ursula Reutin, co-host of “the Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, wrote to MyNorthwest late Tuesday. “Although she sounded tense at the beginning, she really hit her stride and clearly got under the former president’s skin.”

Ursula then brought up two key moments where Trump appeared to lose his composure.

“Once she brought up that his bored supporters were leaving his rallies early, he became unhinged, she said. “He lost focus and stooped so low as to make the baseless claim that Haitian immigrants were eating their dogs and cats.”

Ursula concluded by saying thanks to Harris demonstrating she has what it takes to be the president and lead the country, her detractors are going to have to come up with alternate ways to weaken her standing.

“Harris’ critics, including Trump, will be hard-pressed to continue their claim that she’s not smart and can’t string together sentences, Ursula said. “She appeared Presidential, confident, and optimistic while he came across as angry and divisive.”

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Jason Rantz of KTTH calls out ABC News, says debate likely hurt Trump

Jason Rantz, the host of “The Jason Rantz Show” on AM 770 KTTH, called the televised debate an “utter disgrace and total embarrassment” for ABC News, the network that had the broadcast rights to the event.

“Donald Trump didn’t just debate Kamala Harris – he had two others on the stage to compete with. Moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis will be called out for a historically poor performance filled with misleading fact checks that went exclusively one way, allowing Harris to blatantly lie,” Rantz wrote to MyNorthwest Tuesday evening. “They deserve all the criticism they will get for the remainder of their sad careers. Bad faith, ignorant talking heads on the Left will pretend this didn’t happen. Given they’ve been gaslighting us for years, we can’t be shocked. But take note of who lies about tonight: they don’t deserve your trust or your attention.”

Despite his harsh criticism of ABC News and the two moderators, Rantz conceded that Trump missed on some areas, while also saying Harris was able to get away with failing to answer questions and pivoting back to attacks on Trump.

“Trump allowed Harris to get under his skin and took the bait too often,” Rantz said. “He ended up losing on topics where he is strong. She avoided answering almost every question. She just pivoted from the questions, and attacked and lied about Trump, while the moderators helped her out. Why? On the issues, Trump is stronger and more aligned with the American people.

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In the end, Rantz concluded his analysis with hopes that while Trump didn’t succeed in some areas Tuesday night, the American people will see through what he called the tactics of both Harris and the moderators of the highly anticipated political event.

“Trump didn’t stick to highlighting the issues, and this debate likely hurt him as a consequence,” Rantz said. “He didn’t do what he needed to, even though he was in a nearly impossible position of debating three people. Kamala Harris lied all night, didn’t respond to questions, and hopes you won’t notice. I hope people are wise enough to see through the left-wing tactic from Harris and the moderators.”

Gee Scott: ‘I knew Donald Trump would crack’

Gee Scott, the other co-host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, appeared on “Seattle’s Morning News” Wednesday morning to discuss the debate with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. He said he wanted provide a different perspective from what others were saying about the event. He started with some complimentary words about the early performance of former President Donald Trump.

“Let’s go to the start of the debate. I thought that former President Trump was really good to start,” Gee said. “He was sitting there; he was chilling; he was calm; he was cool. Vice president Harris … started off tight almost like … she was prepared but … there were nerves where there was ‘I got to get this out and say this the right way.'”

Meanwhile, Gee noted that Harris didn’t get off to the best start.

“I thought that the the first question that they asked … Vice President Harris did not do a good job in answering that with the economy,” he said. “She kind of twisted the question around … It’s starting off where Vice President Harris is tight and Donald Trump actually looks as if he’s is really good control.”

But in Gee’s eyes, the debate turned pretty quickly and Harris seized control thanks to Trump being unable to let some of Harris’ comments go and sticking to the issues.

“Sometimes there are certain people in this world that feel that other ethnicities, are less than. So, they get upset they say things like, ‘Oh, that dude thinks he’s all that or that person is uppity.’ I knew Donald Trump would crack and the reason why he’s gonna crack has nothing to do with lies or truths or policies. He just (doesn’t) want this Black woman talking to him like this and and he cracked and he just he fell for the bait and … he could not handle this Black woman speaking to him in this way.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.