'She emasculated him': Ex-senior Republican says Harris left Trump 'embarrassed'
Following former President Donald Trump's widely panned performance in Tuesday night's debate in Philadelphia, a former California Republican Party official bluntly assessed how Vice President Kamala Harris cleaned his clock in a new analysis for his "Great Transformation" Substack.
Mike Madrid, co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project and who has long been bullish on Harris' chances, said that feeling was only validated further when she swung at Trump from the podium.
"She embarrassed Donald Trump. She emasculated him," wrote Madrid. "A Black woman exposed Trump as an aging, feeble old man in mental decline. That’s important because the only two politicians that have brought Trump to humiliating defeat by standing him down in person have been women."
The other being former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
"There’s no question Trump assisted in the effort by being undisciplined, but more importantly his deep insecurities are most exposed when being faced down by strong women," wrote Madrid.
ALSO READ: Buckle up: Win or lose, Trump promises potential scenarios of violence
From the very start of the debate when Trump was thrown off by Harris walking up to him and shaking his hand, Madrid wrote, Trump was unable to look at her and his body language showed his hostility and discomfort.
By contrast, he continued, Harris "accomplished everything she set out to do and more."
"At times, she was energetic, passionate, capable, competent, and appropriately aggressive and defensive," wrote Madrid. "Her performance gave undecided voters or those who didn’t know enough about her the permission to pull the lever for her in the ballot box — she clearly met all of the 5 key criteria I laid out in a pre-debate post here to declare herself a winner and set her on a trajectory to victory."
Moreover, said Madrid, his GOP strategist friends suffered "serious bed wetting" as the debate unfolded, desperately trying to spin it by saying Harris' body language was off-putting and could be used in attack ads against her. "I could smell the desperation through the phone," he said.
Ultimately, he concluded, "We’ve found that being a woman is an advantage. Last night, she took the first big step in moving her campaign and the country in a new direction."