Sept. 11:

Never Again Trump

—Bill Kristol

On June 27, at this year’s first presidential debate, Joe Biden lost his chance for a second term. Last night, at this year’s second presidential debate, Donald Trump may well have lost his chance for a second term.

The evident fact is that last night Kamala Harris did well, and that Donald Trump was awful. As Trump surrogate and sycophant Lindsey Graham admitted to Tim Miller in the spin room, the debate was a “disaster” for Donald Trump. Even the talking heads on Fox News agreed.

Could Trump recover from the disaster? Sure. It’s possible. His support seems immovable, meaning he’ll probably never be very far behind.

Could Harris still falter? Perhaps. Does winning the debate mean winning the election? Of course not. There are eight long weeks left. There will still be plenty of moments in this campaign that will make us—or at least that will make me!—nervous.

But we can’t unsee what we saw last night. And what we all saw is how radically unfit Donald Trump is to be president again.

Indeed, media focus groups and private dial tests alike showed not merely that Harris won the debate; it also seems to be the case that the debate pushed a number of undecided voters, and even some soft Trump supporters, to shift towards Harris.

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And so I think we can now say that it’s no longer a 50-50 proposition that Donald Trump will be our next president. ...

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In light of what we all saw last night, I want to do something unusual here. I want to make a direct appeal to readers who don’t much like the Biden administration, who aren’t crazy about the Democratic Party, who aren’t sold on the Harris-Walz ticket, and who have been toying with sticking with or going back to Trump.

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I say to you: Earnestly consider what happened in Philadelphia last night. Heck, watch the debate again, or read the transcript. And ask yourself: Do you honestly believe this man can and should lead the country for the next four years?

Joe Biden did the right thing after his debate disaster and stepped aside. Donald Trump won’t do that. So he needs to be defeated. You who’ve been tempted to support him can still be anti-left and anti-woke. You can still be a believer in the virtues and even the glories of conservatism. But you also can do what you know is the right thing: Vote against the unhinged guy you saw yelling last night. Vote for sanity and decency on November 5th.

You don’t need belatedly to become Never Trump. But after last night, you really should be Never Again Trump.