Charlie Sykes: “At his rallies, Trump can get away with his signature lies and tantrums of grievance—and with not saying much at all about actual policy plans. In his softball interviews with fawning right-wing hosts, he can ramble and lie without fear of being challenged. At the presidential debate, though, it didn’t work. So he has decided to blame everybody but himself…”

“But it wasn’t the moderators or the network, or even Harris, who forced Trump to begin ranting that ‘they’re eating the dogs!’ That was all Trump.”

“A day after endorsing Kamala Harris for president and urging her fans to vote regardless of whom they supported, Taylor Swift reiterated that call in her acceptance speech at the Video Music Awards last night,” the New York Times reports.

Said Swift: “The fact that this is a fan-voted award and you voted for this, I appreciate it so much. And if you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that’s very important coming up — the 2024 presidential election.”

“He is like one of those big balloons when you stick a pin in and it swirls around the room until it comes down to nothing.”

— Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), talking about Donald Trump on CNN.

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Swing state polls show an incredibly close race in our 7 Toss-up presidential states right now.”

“Final polling did generally overstate Democrats in both the 2016 and 2020 elections in these states, with Wisconsin standing out. Keep that in mind as polling shows Kamala Harris holding up a little bit better in the Badger State than elsewhere.”

“If polls are understating Donald Trump again, he of course is in a great position to win given how competitive he already is in the core swing states. But there are good reasons to believe that he is not being understated this time.”

Jake Tapper told viewers on CNN that Donald Trump’s “more than a little bit racist lie” about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio “must be the craziest subject to ever rear its head in American presidential debate.”

The latest Fox News Power Rankings finds Donald Trump has lost his edge in Georgia and North Carolina which gives Kamala Harris a lead in the overall forecast for the first time. 

They have Michigan leaning to Harris, but there are still six states considered Toss Ups.

“Can someone give this guy a cognitive test? It’s not clear to me that he’s actually mentally fit to do the job.”

— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), quoted by CNN, on Donald Trump’s performance in this week’s debate.

A new New York Post/Leger poll finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump nationally among likely voters, 50% to 47%.

The Harris campaign is launching its first ad following the presidential debate, highlighting what it calls “two very different visions” for the country and Vice President Harris’ plan to create a “new way forward,” Axios reports.

“Donald Trump is equivocating over the possibility of a second debate with Kamala Harris after his dud display in their first showdown prompted his team and conservative media allies to mount a frantic cleanup operation,” CNN reports.

“It’s far too early to say whether the tangle in Philadelphia substantially changed the race as Harris beseeches remaining movable voters in swing states to ditch the chaos of the Trump era. But in the aftermath of Tuesday’s debate, both campaigns are surveying the impact of a critical clash before more than 60 million viewers eight weeks from Election Day.”