While President Obama hasn’t revealed his reaction yet to the first presidential debate, several of his former top advisers were gleeful about Hillary Clinton’s performance and predictably critical of Republican Donald Trump.
Former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod called it a “very strong night” for Mrs. Clinton.
“I guess prep matters,” he said on Twitter.
Responding to Mr. Trump’s comment that not paying federal income taxes “makes me smart,” former Obama adviser and campaign manager David Plouffe said the remark “will go down as an incredibly stupid debate moment.”
Former senior presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Mr. Trump “just turned in the worst debate performance in nearly 40 years.”
“Donald Trump is a racist, he says racists things, he is supported by racists and would be a racist president,” Mr. Pfeiffer said on Twitter.
In another tweet, he said, “Donald Trump is delivering his primary message to a general election audience seeing him for the first time.”
Former Obama chief speechwriter Jon Favreau said on Twitter, “@SarahPalinUSA turned in a better debate performance than @realDonaldTrump did tonight.”
Some Democratic loyalists credited Ron Klain, a Democratic operative who served briefly as Mr. Obama’s adviser on the Ebola crisis, for preparing Mrs. Clinton well for the debate.
“The real winner of tonight’s debate? @RonaldKlain, who prepped Hillary and got it done,” said Eli Attie, a former special assistant to President Bill Clinton, on Twitter.
Mr. Obama watched the debate at the White House.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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