Pollster and political consultant Doug Schoen said President Donald Trump emerged as the true winner of the Democrats' debate.
He made his comments Friday in a column posted on the Fox News website.
“Thursday night, the remaining 10 Democratic candidates took the stage in Miami, Florida for the second night of the Democratic National Committee’s first primary debate,” he wrote.
“Though several of the candidates gave strong performances and delivered crowd-pleasing one-liners, only one clear winner has emerged from these first debates: Donald Trump.
“I say this because it is evident that the Democratic Party is at war with itself, and these first primary debates put the inner-party in-fighting and chaos on full display.”
He maintained the divide was obvious during the first debate on Wednesday and even more apparent the following night.
“We witnessed progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who supports eliminating private health insurance and replacing it with a single-payer ‘Medicare-for-all’ system, clash on policy with moderate candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, both of whom advocate against eliminating private insurance and instead for strengthening Obamacare” he said.
Schoen noted there was “clear tension between moderate and progressive candidates” on a variety of issues.
“Although these were only the first debates, the end result is in large part more chaos in an already hectic field, all while President Trump plodded away on issues like Iran and China that are garnering national attention.
And Schoen said that while Democrats argued on stage, Trump showed he is “functioning as the president.”