Trump Claims Audience Went 'Crazy' For Him During the Debate, But There Was No Live Audience

Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris had an intense face-off on September 10th. During an appearance on Fox News's prime time show Gutfeld, Trump bizarrely claimed that the "audience" reacted to his unfair treatment during the debate, even though one of the main rules of the presidential debate hosted by the ABC network was the absence of a live studio audience. "They didn't correct her [Harris] once and they corrected me," Trump said. "Everything I said, practically, I think 9 times or 11 times. And the audience was absolutely, they went crazy." 

According to The Independent, netizens gave mixed reactions over Trump's false recollection of the big debate, "The audience being the voices in his head," mocked an X user. "Let me help him! He meant to say “And my imaginary audience went crazy”, a person chimed. "His constant need for attention. His perpetual need for applause. His incessant need to be the most popular. His continual need for the highest ratings. It is all pathological and deeply disqualifying," a netizen criticized. "MAGA trying to claim Trump was talking about TV viewers," another person laughed. 

An X user called out the Republican leader, "He embellishes everything ..and they sit there and don't correct him? they love it." "This is an interesting phenomenon we are seeing. Typically, when leaders are dishonest, and everyone recognizes it (i.e., it is provable), they lose trust and respect for the leader. With DJT supporters they seem to simply ignore it or excuse it and then pivot," a person agreed.

"67 million people watched the debate (this audience would be referred to as a' audience'), and many posted on social media as it was happening (this is where they could be seen “going crazy”)," a netizen tried to reason. "He’s talking about the viewers at home obviously, they were so frustrated and he could sense their frustration that he couldn’t finish a single sentence without getting corrected by someone. you would be frustrated too! look at his hands, that motion means he’s serious," someone supported. 

Trump later cited the debate's TV ratings to Gutfeld. “We had 75 million people watching, something like that, and you have to do well,” he said. It is not clear if the Republican leader pointed out the ratings when he mentioned the audience went "crazy". In addition, he also intensified his assertion that he had a "great debate," even in light of polling results and remarks from party members. “I walked off, I said: ‘That was a great debate, I loved it.’ You know you got a lot of people watching,” he added. However, several Republicans closest to the GOP nominee admitted Harris was the winner. “Make no mistake about it, Trump had a bad night,” Brit Hume told Fox News.“We heard so many of the old grievances that we long thought that Trump had learned were not winners, politically,” he added.