Former CNN political analyst Chris Cilizza has warned Democrats that Kamala Harris’s first debate with President Donald Trump wasn’t the “knockout” they are claiming it to be.
Cilizza argues that there is far too much hype coming from the Democrats and the corporate media about Harris’s performance.
However, he warns that voters who watched the debate can see through claims that Trump is “panicking” because it’s “the beginning of the end.”
The left-wing analyst, who is now an MSNBC political commentator and a frequent panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” weighed in on the aftermath of the debate now that the dust has settled.
During a Wednesday appearance on News Nation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert,” Cilizza refuted claims from the Democrats that Harris critically damaged Trump’s campaign during their first faceoff.
Harris and Trump squared off on Tuesday on ABC News.
The corporate media has since been pushing commentary following the debate suggesting Trump may struggle to recover.
Cillizza said he thinks Harris beat Trump in the debate, but that it was not as harmful to the 45th president as “the Left” made it out to be, cautioning them not to count him out.
“I believe Kamala Harris won the debate. It wasn’t a knockout, but won the debate last night,” he said.
“I woke up this morning and saw ‘Kamala Harris destroys Donald Trump,’ ‘The Beginning of the End for Trump.’
“It’s like, man, we’ve been down this road, right? …
“He’s not going to just go away,” Cillizza said.
“I think a lot of people on the left are waiting for this like magic wand to be waved for everyone’s like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I actually don’t support Donald Trump anymore.’”
“I think so he mostly did what he does.
“Like this idea that he melted down feels to me like the same people who say, like, ‘Things are getting much worse for Donald Trump, he’s panicking.’
“I’m like, he’s been like this since he came down the gold escalator in 2015.
“Not that much has changed,” he added.
“And to my mind, if you were for Donald Trump, there’s nothing in that debate that’s going to take you off that.
“If you’re for Harris, there’s nothing in that debate that’s going to take you off it.”
Cillizza also said most undecided voters likely did not watch the entire debate.
He noted that despite the media’s perception that failed Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton beat Trump in most of the 2016 debates, the 45th POTUS won the election.
WATCH:
In a seemingly coordinated move, several high-profile Democrats took to social media to make exaggerated claims of victory following the debate.
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a post on X on Tuesday that the debate “was a knockout.”
Schumer added that he was “looking forward to seeing how Republicans try to spin” it.
Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) posted that “Kamala just destroyed the remnants of Trump’s flailing career.”
However, according to the RealClearPolling averages, Harris is currently only leading Trump by 0.2% in the top seven battleground states.
Meanwhile, ABC News moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir have been facing a widespread backlash for their clear anti-Trump bias during the debate.
Davis and Muir for repeatedly fact-checking Trump while giving Harris a free pass to promote debunked falsehoods.
