Harris knocked Trump out with one jab. Then he melted down.

And now, a brief message to Republicans in the wake of Tuesday night’s presidential debate: HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA! Are you freakin’ kidding me? That babbling goon is your standard-bearer? Nice work!
With one smart comment early in the debate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris shattered any veneer of sanity around Donald Trump, sending him spiraling into his true, babbling, unhinged form. He was often incomprehensible, all anger and grievance, a dunderhead for the ages and a tragic figure the GOP is fully strapped to.
Harris did what, to Trump, is unthinkable. She said, accurately, that people often leave his rallies “out of exhaustion and boredom” because it’s always the same schtick.
And that was all it took. Trump hadn’t been making much sense to begin with, but he came unglued after that subtle jab, and there aren’t enough antacids in the world to calm the stomachs of honest Republicans who watched the rest.
He became angry, snarling about immigrants and even bringing up a baseless, racist claim that has been circulating lately in the right-wing loon-o-sphere.
Asked about his recent comment that he lost the last election “by a whisker” – the first time he’s admitted losing the 2020 presidential election – Trump responded: “I said that?” He then insisted that he did win the last election, which is crazy talk.
On race, Trump said of Harris: “I read where she was not Black.”
Asked about a health care plan, something he has promised basically forever and never delivered, he said he has “concepts of a plan.”
At one point he said he was listing two things relating to immigration, but he listed three things: “We need two things, we need walls … we have to have borders and we have to have good elections.”
What?
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As much as the first debate was a disaster for President Joe Biden – a disaster that led him to step down and Harris to take over at the top of the ticket – this debate, for Trump and Republicans in general, was a profound embarrassment. 
Trump ranted like he was reading from a Facebook screed posted by a conspiracy-addled lunatic. His face twisted in contortions of frustration and rage, and he tossed out words and ideas that would only make sense to those who live in the deepest fever swamps of the MAGA universe.
The last thing his campaign or the party at large wanted was for Debate Trump to sound like Rally Trump. The rallies are for the rabid base, and they are, if you haven’t watched them, festivals of vile rhetoric and insanity. The debate is where Trump is supposed to pretend to be a serious person who has … you know … ideas and stuff. A man who understands policy and can at least trick people into thinking he’s remotely qualified to return to the White House.
Oops. Harris’ needling of the former president’s fragile ego swiftly brought out Rally Trump, and boy did he make a mess of things. 
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“I have been a leader on fertilization,” he said while talking about abortion and IVF, presumably causing at least five of his advisers to pass out.
He wouldn’t answer when asked if he would veto an abortion ban.
He went full stream-of-consciousness at times, not answering questions but belching lies like he had just gorged himself on the very concept of dishonesty.
And at every turn, Harris had him. After he denied the outcome of the 2020 election, she said: “Clearly he’s having a very hard time processing that.”
It was merciless, sending Trump into a chaotic display of bizarre bloviating that should scare the bejesus out of voters, and leave Republicans muttering: “Dear lord, what have we done?”
Harris, accurately again, said of Trump’s loud and dishonest and extreme rhetoric: “Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back.” 
Amen to that.
She said: “The American people are exhausted.”
I have to imagine a lot of Republicans feel the same way after that colossal cluster muck. Exhausted, not hopeful about where the polling is going to head now and really wishing they chose a nominee who isn’t whatever the hell that was.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk