Karl Rove Taunts Trump for Losing ‘Catastrophic Debate’ to Woman He Called ‘Dumb as a Rock’: ‘What Does That Make Him?’

AP Photo/Alex Brando

Republican strategist, Fox News contributor, and Wall Street Journal columnist Karl Rove kicked off his review of this week’s presidential debate in the Journal with the following declaration: “Tuesday’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was a train wreck for him, far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined.”

Rove argued that Harris kept Trump on the defensive and successfully tried “to get him to lose his cool.”

“As is frequently the case with Mr. Trump, he let his emotions get the better of him. He took the bait almost every time she put it on the hook, offering a pained smile as she did. Rather than dismissing her attacks and launching his strongest counterarguments against her, Mr. Trump got furious,” he wrote. “As her attacks continued, his voice rose. He gripped the podium more often and more firmly. He grimaced and shook his head, at times responding with wild and fanciful rhetoric. Short, deft replies and counterpunches would have been effective. He didn’t deliver them.”

According to the former advisor to George W. Bush, “Mr. Trump did a terrible job at his most important task—tying her to President Biden’s failed policies” and “an even worse job prosecuting the argument that she’s a far-left politician out of sync with America’s values.”

He also submitted that there was “no contest” between how the two candidates carried themselves, writing that “Ms. Harris came across as calm, confident, strong and focused on the future. Mr. Trump came across as hot, angry, and fixated on the past, especially his own.”

Although Rove posited that the debate may not sink Trump or buoy Harris as much as some have suggested it will, he concluded that “there’s no putting lipstick on this pick.”

“Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock,’ he mused. “Which raises the question: What does that make him?”