Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly praised President Donald Trump for his debate performance on Thursday evening, saying that the president was effective, delivered substantive answers and overall beat Democratic nominee Joe Biden “handily.”
“Trump won this debate, handily. Biden wasn’t a force at all. Trump was substantive, on-point, well-tempered. Definitely helped himself, when it mattered most,” said Kelly.
Trump, who notably feuded with Kelly during the 2016 Republican primaries, responded to the journalist, saying: “Thank you Megyn.”
Thank you Megyn! https://t.co/sC71EEWIOd
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2020
Kelly’s observations, however, didn’t sit well with Actress Patricia Arquette, who repeatedly tried to dunk on Kelly for the tweet.
“You must have been drinking bleach,” Arquette told Kelly. The actress tweeted again at Kelly a minute later: “Do you have windmill cancer? I’m getting concerned.”
You must have been drinking bleach.
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) October 23, 2020
Kelly responded: “Nah, just don’t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome and can still engage in fair analysis. You wouldn’t understand.”
In turn, Arquette responded with what she appeared to call actual “fair analysis” of the debate: “This is fair analysis. Trump has lowered the bar in every way imaginable. You accept his pathological lying. This is an analysis of you and your clear bias. He was just seething and muted instead of talking and sputtering all over his opponent.”
This is fair analysis. Trump has lowered the bar in every way imaginable. You accept his pathological lying. This is an analysis of you and your clear bias. He was just seething and muted instead of talking and sputtering all over his opponent.
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) October 23, 2020
Similar to Kelly, many political pundits and commentators offered praise of the president’s performance.
Dan McCarthy, a right-leaning New York Times opinion columnist, noted: “President Trump won because he was back in top form, the Trump of 2016: bold and combative. But he also took a page from Mike Pence’s playbook in the vice-presidential debate about the effectiveness of blending firmness with politeness. He put Biden on the defensive.”
Andrew McCarthy, of the National Review, wrote: “To use a boxing analogy, I think he won the match on points, but the margin gets better for him in the post-mortem. Former vice president Biden said some truly indefensible things.”
Victor Davis Hanson wrote in the National Review: “Trump, then, after four years in the White House, nonetheless successfully returned to his role as the outsider cleanser of Biden’s Augean insider stables. His theme was can-do Americanism, Biden’s was timidity and caution and worries that there is little hope anywhere to be found, an attitude consistent with his own hibernation.”