CNN Data Guru Harry Enten Says Kamala Harris ‘CRUSHED’ Donald Trump At Debate

CNN data super-nerd Harry Enten joked he would use the “scientific” term for Vice President Kamala Harris’s debate performance: she “CRUSHED Donald Trump.”

Trump and VP Harris met for the first time on the debate stage in Philadelphia Tuesday night for the ABC News debate, in a battle that near-universally was judged an overwhelming victory for Harris and a “disaster” for Trump.

On Wednesday morning’s edition of CNN News Central, co-anchor Sara Sidner asked Enten for his analysis of a CNN post-debate poll — which Enten noted used a Republican-heavy sample. Enten repeatedly stressed that Harris “crushed” Trump — “scientifically” speaking:

SARA SIDNER: What did you find here as far as how this was received?

HARRY ENTEN: Yeah, I’m just going to use a scientific term, and that is that the vice president CRUSHED Donald Trump. All right.

So how did the vice president– how much did she crush him by?

Look at this first debate winner margins. Look at that. She won by a 26 point margin, nearly matching Trump’s margin over Biden back in June when he won by 34 points, very similar to Joe Biden’s margin of– over Donald Trump back in 2020 of 32 points and significantly higher than the 2016 margin that Hillary Clinton had over Donald Trump in their first debate, just 13 points.

But the bottom line here is debate watchers — and they actually leaned a little bit more Republican than the nation as a whole — believe that Kamala Harris easily, easily won this debate. Again, the scientific term is she crushed former President Donald Trump.

SARA SIDNER: (LAUGHS) Alright. Will we see, though, a change in the polls, a rise or a bump for Harris?

HARRY ENTEN: I think that the most likely scenario is that you will, in fact, see a rise in the polls. Why?

Take a look at the last four times we had a first debate and look at those winners. Did they see a rise in the polls? Yes.

Mitt Romney in 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Donald Trump earlier this year. They all saw rises in the polls of two points or more.

And given how close this race is nationally, given how close it is in the swing states, do not be surprised if Kamala Harris jumps out to a lead nationally. And don’t be surprised if she jumps out to a slight small lead in those key battleground states.

It should still probably be a close race based upon history. But no doubt, at least based upon history, we should expect Kamala Harris to receive a polling bump. In a race as tight as this one that would certainly be welcomed.

Watch above via CNN News Central.