CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Says Trump Advisers ‘Praised Him To His Face’ After Debate — But Told Her They Were ‘Stunned’ By Failures

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins said sources told her former President Donald Trump’s advisers “praised him to his face” right after the debate — but offered a different story in anonymity-protected comments expressing shock at Trump’s failures.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met for the first time Tuesday night for the ABC News debate, which was near-universally judged to be an overwhelming victory for Harris and a “disaster” for Trump.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins , Collins opened her show with a rundown of the debate, and new reporting from her insider Trumpworld sources — which rival even Maggie Haberman’s .

Collins said her sources told her there was praise to Trump’s face, but advisers were privately “stunned” Trump failed to take advantage of the talking points he and his team had prepared:

COLLINS: My lead source, tonight, might be the main reason why Trump was knocked so off his game. We’ll speak to him in a second.

But I do want to start with some new reporting for you, tonight, on what happened, in Philadelphia, last night.

I’m told that as soon as Donald Trump exited that debate stage, he immediately began quizzing those, waiting in his viewing room, about how the last 90 minutes had gone.

While several people praised him to his face, telling him that he did a great job, that’s not what a lot of them are saying privately today. Instead, those around Trump have described what happened is a draw at best and a loss at worst.

Several of them told CNN they were stunned that the former President failed to do a better job executing on the talking points that he had been preparing, with his team, for weeks, against Vice President Harris, her record, her policy reversals.

Trump had actually done more debate prep ahead of his first meeting with Harris than he did for his debate with President Biden, earlier this summer.

Yet, they didn’t believe that he made some of the central arguments against her, including this one about why she hasn’t carried out the promises that she’s making now, in the last three and a half years that she has been in office.

He didn’t go there until his closing argument that surprised a lot of people in his inner circle. Instead, they believe that Trump took the bait, every single time, Harris offered it up.

While multiple Trump allies described what happened, last night, as a missed opportunity, for the former President, they have since started downplaying the debate’s significance overall, arguing that it won’t shift his numbers, with voters, in states like Pennsylvania.

Trump himself is non-committal, today, about a potential second debate. But almost every ally of his, that I spoke with, said they do ultimately believe he will agree to one.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins .