“Morning Joe” leaned hard into boxing-match analogies in its Friday assessment of this week’s Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump debate, suggesting that the vice president knocked the GOP candidate off balance the moment they touched gloves.
Specifically, guest analyst Michael Steele said on the MSNBC program that when Harris approached Trump to shake hands and introduce herself by name, she was already getting in his head – the beginning of a shrewd strategy to bait, goad and ultimately rattle the former president onstage.
“Not only did he get stung, but he got knocked down,” the former RNC chair and Maryland lieutenant governor said. “And he couldn’t get up. If we’re sticking with the boxing metaphor, it’s like the guy on the mat, looking up, one hand in the air, saying, ‘No mas.’ He was knocked down in such a way that he didn’t want any more.”
Boxing references are natural to MSNBC host Willie Geist, a huge fan of the pugilistic arts.
“Kudos to you, Michael Steele, for taking our extended boxing metaphor all the way to Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard’s ‘No Mas’ fight in 1980,” Geist said. “Nicely done.”
But it wasn’t a jab that first got Trump on his heels – it was a handshake.
“For me, Willie, the moment that struck me was when Kamala Harris walked over and shook his hand,” Steele said. “He had no intention of shaking her hand. He wasn’t going to be the gentleman who goes to the center of the ring and shakes his opponent’s hand. But she did one better — she went over and introduced herself. From that moment, he was different.”
Steele said Harris herself “started off a little rocky, but quickly found her footing on issue after issue. He was reduced to talking about ducks and cats and whining about his crowd size. That was the essence of the debate for Donald Trump. He’s on the mat, looking up from the floor, saying, ‘No more.’ And if he gets up, she’s going to hit him again.”
The “Morning Joe” gang didn’t gin up the boxing metaphor on their own, however – they were riffing on Trump’s own words after showing a clip of the candidate saying at a rally that he’d won the debate, since it’s typically the loser who calls for a rematch (Harris indicated a willingness to have another debate, while Trump has declined).
“Yeah, and he likes that boxing metaphor about a rematch, somehow framing it as a win,” Geist said. “But the more apt metaphor is that he got his butt kicked in the third or fourth round and doesn’t want to come back out for the next round. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is standing in the middle of the ring, saying, ‘Let’s do it again.’ He wants none of it.”
Watch the entire clip in the video above.
The post ‘Morning Joe’ Pinpoints the Harris Debate Move That Knocked Trump Off-Balance: ‘From That Moment, He Was Different’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
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