Eight weeks later, one of Harris’s controversial points still makes Trump uneasy

Ahead of the first and only presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the Democratic campaign has been telegraphing its punches. The vice president planned to stir up the former president, lure him into obvious traps and exploit his easily triggered temperament.

Harris ended up doing just thatat one point inviting people to actually attend a Trump campaign event and noting “that people are starting to leave his rallies early — because they’re tired and bored.” The Democrat assumed that her Republican opponent would not be able to keep her composure, and she was right.

Nearly eight weeks later, Trump is still talking about it.

“We have big rallies. You know, we’ve got 50,000,” the Republican candidate said Sunday in Pennsylvania. “It’s interesting that during the debate she said, ‘Oh, oh, and your debates don’t really produce results, and everybody leaves early.’ Then I go, because when someone says something, I think you have to refute it, right. I said, “No, there are no vacancies in my debates, and no one ever leaves.” didn’t leave early.” (I assume when he said “debate” he meant “rally.”)

A few days ago, at an event in Arizona, he said essentially the same thing. Referring to Harris, Trump said“When that scoundrel said in the debate, ‘Oh, your rallies are poorly attended and people are leaving,’ they’re not leaving.” He said “nobody leaves early”, adding: “It’s never happened before”.

In other words, nearly eight weeks after Harris goaded him with accounts of his campaign events, Trump is still thinking about it, talking about it, and trying to deny it.

Of course, part of the problem is that it’s really pathetic. But it’s no less telling that the former president is just plain and glaringly wrong, with his recent events showing various empty seats and shots of people heading for the exits as he speaks.

I lost count of how many video I have seen people recently to leave Trump’s rallies during his speechin addition to events that have all kinds of free places.

At one point in late September, Republicans went so far as to say that if people saw footage of people leaving one of his events early, they should not believe it because only they it seems leaving early

It’s hard not to wonder if Harris had any idea ahead of the debate how much that one line would haunt Trump until the end of the 2024 election.