When I turned on Fox News after the presidential debate on Tuesday, the mood was hard to describe. Grim springs to mind – a bit like a funeral, perhaps for a beloved cat that was eaten by a political bogeyman.

Donald Trump had just spent almost the entire 90-minute debate with Kamala Harris ranting into his microphone – a complete opposite of his last performance against Joe Biden. While he was able to hold himself together for the first while, Trump quickly fell into the traps Harris had set for him – about the size of the crowd, his reputation among military chiefs, his standing among world leaders – and the consequences were dire. For any viewer who may have forgotten what the Trump years were like, it was a haunting reminder.

When the ABC anchors finally wrapped up the show and the lights came up on the Fox News panel, the anchors seemed as unsettled as the viewers at home. You knew immediately that things were dire when anchor Jesse Watters insisted that NO Winner. “I don’t think Americans are watching and thinking that any of these people won,” Watters stammered. Then he admitted: “That was tough. That was pretty intense at times.”

Brit Hume, the network’s chief political analyst, was even more blunt. “Make no mistake: Trump had a bad night,” Hume told Fox viewers. “That was pretty much her night.” Hume sounded annoyed and complained that Trump had been repeatedly provoked by Harris, which had led to Trump “rehashing so many of the old grievances that we long ago thought Trump had learned were politically useless.” Harris, on the other hand, was calm and prepared, Hume said: “She kept her cool.”

“You say she had a good night?” asked moderator Bret Baier.

“I say she certainly did,” said Hume sternly.

On MSNBC, the difference could not have been more stark. Chris Hayes seemed so excited that he could hardly sit still. Lawrence O’Donnell excitedly announced that Harris had given the best presidential debate performance ever. Rachel Maddow read the breaking news of Taylor Swift’s support for Harris’ candidacy to Governor Tim Walz live on air as if it were a message from God.

But at Fox News, the strategy followed after the initial shock seemed to be to real The villains were those pesky ABC journalists who asked questions and fact-checked during the debate, like when they told the American people that there was actually no evidence to support Trump’s blatantly racist claim that the good pets of Springfield, Ohio, were being eaten by Haitian migrants.

Soon, a number of Fox News-friendly faces were called out. Moderator Sean Hannity appeared dejected, insisting that ABC was the “biggest loser of the debate” and denouncing the network’s journalists David Muir and Linsey Davis as “radical left-wing moderators.” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with the air of someone who is simply grateful to be invited on television, complained about “the obvious bias of the moderators who were constantly fact-checking President Trump’s trivialities.” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida called the moderators “a disgrace to journalism.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told viewers that he much preferred the moderation style of CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash because “they asked questions” and “stayed out of the way.”*

Eventually, Trump himself entered the debate spin room—a rare move for him—and began a sort of impromptu press conference, after which Hannity silenced Kennedy so viewers could listen live. But without a microphone clearly in front of Trump, the audience at home had to strain to hear him, making for an even more chaotic experience. Instead of the former president, Fox’s microphones picked up the voices of others in the room full of journalists and media: “Why don’t you look at her?” “Why don’t you let your performance speak for itself?” Some just audibly giggled at the scene.

When Trump finally made his way to Hannity’s set for the TV equivalent of a post-game massage, he complained it was “three against one” but still insisted it was his “best debate ever.” Visibly sweating and with disheveled hair, however, he sounded anything but victorious.

And it was the reaction of the Fox hosts that was most telling about how the evening had gone for Trump. Watters even demonstrated honesty to his audience once or twice; between his defenses he moaned that Trump “had some moments where you thought: Oh my God! Where is he going with this?For Fox viewers wondering where Trump had taken them Tuesday night, there was indeed a grim answer: “This race just got even tighter,” Watters said. said.

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