NBC News Analyst: Donald Trump Wins First Democrat Debate

President Donald Trump smiles during a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini
AP/Alex Brandon
Katherine Rodriguez

An NBC News analyst declared President Donald Trump the winner of the first Democrat presidential debate of the 2020 election season.

Jonathan Allen, who is also an author and reporter, said he was surprised to hear that Trump was “unscathed” while the crowded field of candidates avoided taking direct pot-shots at him.

Allen added most Democrats in the debate wanted to win over far-left primary voters instead of people in the general election pool who could swing the election later in the season.

In his analysis on NBC News, Allen wrote:

For long stretches, it seemed, they completely forgot about the man who has been at the center of pretty much every discussion among Democrats for the last two-plus years — the man they’re competing to take on next year. The obvious reason: The motivation to beat each other was, on this night, more urgent than defeating Trump.

He also said that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) intentionally ignored Trump because “he’s an old show that people are getting tired of.”

His analysis seemed to strike a chord with others on social media, with some on Twitter mentioning that it was a missed opportunity to attack Trump.

Allen later responded with a Thursday afternoon tweet saying that Americans should be “shocked” if the focus of the debate shifts to Trump Thursday evening:

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough echoed Allen’s sentiments, saying it was a “missed opportunity” for Democrats to avoid discussing Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden in the first debate:

“On the first night, they didn’t go after Joe Biden. When you’re sitting with 42-43 percent in the early states and they are not attacking you, that’s an interesting dynamic,” Scarborough said Thursday morning.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.