6 Signs Donald Trump Lost The First Presidential Debate

While pundits comb over through tape from Monday night's presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to make a case for who won the showdown, one does not have to look too much further than the candidate and his inner circle to know the New York businessman lost the debate.

From blaming everything from moderators and microphones to spinning his performance, the Trump camp's excuses all point to the same thing: Hillary Clinton handily won the debate.

Here are some signs Trump lost the first presidential debate:

Trump blamed the microphone.

"And they also had, gave me a defective mic," said Trump. "Did you notice that? My mic was defective within the room," he told a group of reporters afterward. "No, but I wonder, was that on purpose? Was that on purpose? But I had a mic that wasn't worked properly, with, working properly within the room."

As Clinton pointed out on Tuesday, "If you have to blame it on the microphone, you didn't have a good night."

Trump's surrogates blamed the moderator.

Following the debate, Trump said moderator Lester Holt did "a great job," adding, "I thought it was very fair." But Trump's surrogates, who saw a losing performance from their candidate, sought to lay blame on Holt.

"If I were Donald Trump I wouldn’t participate in another debate unless I was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact checker," said former New York mayor and current Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani said. "The moderator would have to promise that there would be a moderator and not a fact checker and in two particular cases an enormously ignorant, completely misinformed fact checker."

Trump's campaign manager turned frustration into virtue.

"I thought Mr. Donald Trump showed great restraint. More restraint than I may have in the face of fire and lies," said campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. "Particularly at the end. He could have gone there and made clear he came ready to say things if she's going to challenge him about his record on women. And then, he decided he won't do that in front of her husband and daughter. And restraint is a virtue and a presidential virtue."

Trump turned to the conservative Drudge Report for confirmation that he won the debate.

Trump insisted on doing his own spin.

Typically after a presidential debate, the nominees' surrogates are the ones who are in the "spin room" offering their (positive) takes on how their candidate did. But that wasn't the case last night as Trump went straight to the spin room to speak on behalf of himself, attempting to correct mistakes he made throughout the debate.

A panel of experts equally composed of Democrats and Republicans says Hillary won the first debate.

According to Politico's Caucus — a panel of swing-state activists, strategists and operatives — Clinton overwhelmingly won the debate.

Overall, roughly 80 percent of insiders — with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans responding to the post-debate survey — said Clinton did the better job at the debate, including 99 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans. Only 21 percent — 1 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of Republicans — picked Trump as the winner.

Check out our highlight video from last night's presidential debate:

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons