The GOP presidential nominee may have had a rough start to his weekend after revelations of sexually crude remarks were leaked on Friday, but according to Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough Donald Trump finished strongly thanks to his debate performance on Sunday evening:

“I think there are a couple of things that people in the press may not want to admit, but it was plainly evident from watching it on TV last night. Number one, it was Donald Trump’s most effective debate performance to date. There’s not a close second, just not a close second. Secondly, despite the fact she had an unprecedented cheering section in the media, the fact is for somebody watching– and people will see this if they go back and watch it today or if they watch parts of it a week from now or a month from now, Hillary Clinton was on the defensive most of the night. She seemed unsure of herself most of the night, and he dominated the second debate in the same way she dominated the first debate.”

Scarborough then commented on what he thought was the most important part of the debate for Trump, which was that he “delivered the attack on the Clinton machine that the Republican base and middle America have been waiting for for years now.”

Co-host Mika Brzezinski said that Trump’s debate performance was “vintage Trump,” and that it rocked the political world.

Scarborough and Brzezinski have been highly critical of Trump during the campaign. But they deserve some credit for giving an honest assessment of the debate, especially compared to the rest of the liberal media’s whining about how it was a dark, nasty, and bitter debate, and that Trump was wrong to have attacked Hillary in the manner he did—exposing her vulnerabilities.