Ex-MSNBC host Donny Deutsch appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday morning, where he admitted that vice presidential candidate JD Vance was "good" in the debate.
"He was good," he said. "I mean, he was too slick, maybe, but… he certainly was not the kind of despicable character that we’ve kind of seen clips of." Deutsch described the debate as a "draw" up until the discussion of the 2020 election and Trump's refusal to concede defeat: "I think that that was disqualifying,"
"I think that’s disqualifying in the election, if you can’t say that," he continued. "I mean, I think that that’s — the issue, that whenever I get into debates with anybody, I go, well, democracy, duh, kind of on the docket."
The frequent MSNBC guest also weighed in on criticisms that the debate was boring, which he said will be a "referendum" on what people want going forward.
"I think the big theme of this thing was that it was very congenial, and it was not a blood sport," he said. "It was not UFC. It was more like boxing. And if the American public — your intuition says, well, the American public is ready for that, they want that, but then I kind of said to myself, is there this sick, twisted thing that people are addicted to the sick entertainment value of Donald Trump, and that they were kind of disappointed?"
"I was enjoying it, but they were disappointed: ‘No, that’s no fun. Are we going to go back to that?’ Now, my better angels in me say, no, people are ready for that. But it’s an interesting question," he added.
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Deutsch concluded, arguing Vance's good performance is going to "bother" Trump, as he showed Americans he was the "better" candidate.
"Donald Trump, you’re going to see, he’s going to be very dismissive of JD Vance in the coming weeks, but Donald Trump is not happy this morning because JD Vance showed himself to be a superior candidate," he said.