Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump were seen shaking hands during a 9/11 anniversary ceremony in downtown Manhattan Wednesday (September 11) morning, hours after their heated debate.
Photos shared by Getty Images show the two candidates being cordial as they stood next to President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Harris and Trump met for the first time during their debate in Philadelphia, which saw Harris go over to Trump and introduce herself with a handshake that wasn't required in the debate stipulations.
A flash poll conducted by SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) showed that the majority of voters who watched the debate believed Harris outperformed Trump. Harris' performance was favored by 63% of respondents, which outpaced expectations for her and President Joe Biden's performance against Trump in a previous debate held in July, prior to Biden ending his re-election campaign.
The same voters were evenly split at 50% on which candidate would perform the strongest prior to the debate. Additionally, 96% of Harris supporters said their candidate had a better performance while a smaller 69% majority of Trump's supporters believed he had a stronger showing.
The former president claimed he did a "great job" in what he called an "unfair" and "rigged" presidential debate Harris broadcasted and moderated by ABC News. Trump, 78, called into FOX News' morning show FOX & Friends and claimed "it was three on one" after he was fact checked by ABC News moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir several times.
"I thought I did a great job," Trump said.
“It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her,” he added.
“It was a three-on-one — that’s OK, I’ve had worse odds before, but never so obvious,” Trump said of the moderators. “They’re dishonest. I think ABC took a big hit last night … They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”
Davis and Muir corrected Trump a total of four times, which many Republicans perceived as a lack of impartiality, yet the former president still believed he had a strong performance.
“I’ve been told I’m a good debater,” Trump said. “I think it was one of my better debates, maybe my best debate.”