Kamala Harris-Donald Trump Face Off

The City of Brotherly Love was less than its moniker might suggest last Tuesday night when Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump took to the stage in a 90-plus minute debate, hosted and moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABS News at Philadelphia’s Constitution Center.

The night belonged to Harris.?She nailed it, delivering a blistering performance that had Trump, defensive and dissembling, on the ropes for most of the evening.?She kept her cool, needling and baiting him, barb after barb in every response and rebuttal. He took the bait every time.

The dichotomy was stark. She: cool, measured, calm, addressing him directly, smiling, laughing, finger on chin, raised eyebrow, a look of incredulity at his meandering often nonsensical, hyperbolic responses. He: hunched, scowling, squinting, grimacing, ranting and raving, defensive, clearly flustered. He never looked at her, preferring instead to stare straight ahead. So often, he digressed, unable to finish his thoughts, coming across as old and petulant.? She was deft, tacked to the middle on major issues, and was surgical in her strikes. He was plodding, fell into every trap laid, and reverted to playing to his MAGA base rather than speaking to the undecided swing state voters he must win over.

She took the initiative from the start, striding across the stage - into his space - and thrust out her hand, “I’m Kamala Harris,” which suggested, ‘I’m not in the slightest bit intimidated by you.’

Topics: the usual suspects

The topics of the night were predictable and many, encompassing: the economy; foreign policy; abortion and Roe v Wade; The Supreme Court; immigration and border security; the Jan 6, 2021 march on the Capitol; Israel/Hamas/Palestine; Afghanistan withdrawal; The Ukraine War; The Affordable Care Act ‘Obama Care’; climate change; energy and many more. Selected highlights below show the ‘he said/she said’ nature of the evening.?

The Economy

The first question by Muir was directed to Harris.?“When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?”

Slightly slow and a bit shaky, she hit key middle-class issues, starting with being “raised as a middle-class kid,” then onto a $6,000 tax cut for families with children, and a $50,000 tax reduction for start-up small businesses.?

A good start but didn’t go far enough.?She didn’t get into the kitchen-table issues that matter most in this election: food prices, housing, gas, medical bills.?

Then she attacked, “My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion to America's deficit. My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump sales tax…”

He took the bait, “First of all, I have no sales tax. That's an incorrect statement. She knows that. We're doing tariffs on other countries…” Moments later, he went off the rails: “We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they're coming in and they're taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions.”

Harris: “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century.?Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.?And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess…” Anaphora at its best.

“But I’m going to tell you all in this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name calling.”?She tied him to Project 2025, a 900-page manifesto published by The Heritage Foundation, promoting right-wing policies to overhaul the federal government.

Project 2025: “I haven’t read it, I don’t want to read it, purposely.? I’m not going to read it.”

Trump was defensive:?“I haven’t read it, I don’t want to read it, purposely.?I’m not going to read it.”?CNN reported that at least 140 members who worked in the Trump administration were involved with it.

Seven minutes in, Harris was comfortable seeming almost to enjoy the exchange.? The topic turned to abortion with Trump answering the first question.?

Abortion

Davis: “President Trump, you’ve often touted that you were able to kill Roe v. Wade. Last year, you said you were proud to be the most pro-life president in American history.?Then last month you said your administration would be great for women and their reproductive rights… why should women trust you?”?

Trump: “Well, the reason I’m doing that vote is because the plan is, as you know, the vote is they have abortion in the ninth month…”

Davis fact-checking in real-time: “There is no state in the country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”?

Harris: “Well, as I said you’re going to hear a bunch of lies…one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”

Trump responded using Reagan’s famous brush-off from the 1980 Carter debate: “Well, there she goes again.?It’s a lie, I’m not signing a ban.” Trump tried to justify his actions saying, “This is an issue that's torn our country apart for 52 years. Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states.” Not true.

Immigration

The debate moved to immigration and border security. Muir asked why the Biden administration waited so long to impose new asylum restrictions. Harris deflected, pinning the responsibility on Trump for urging Republicans to block a bipartisan bill earlier in the year.

“But you know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress, and said kill the bill. And you know why? Because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”

“And I'm going to actually do something really unusual and I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills causing cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

That was too much.?Unable to keep the focus on immigration, he said:

“First let me respond as to the rallies. She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go. And the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there…people don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”

Then he went off the rails:

“In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame.”

Muir fact-checking in real-time: “I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

January 6

Trump continued to deflect responsibility for January 6, 2021, when he urged his supporters to storm the Capitol.?

Muir: “You were the president. You were watching it unfold on television. It's a very simple question as we move forward toward another election. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day? Yes or no.”

“I had nothing to do with that other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech,” said Trump, professing total amnesia, conveniently ignoring what he’d told the crowd that day: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Harris: “I was at the Capitol on January 6th. I was the Vice President-Elect. I was also an acting senator. I was there. And on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's Capitol, to desecrate our nation's Capitol. On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured. And some died.”

Election Loss 2020

Trump continued to deny that he lost the 2020 election notwithstanding numerous courts, Republican state officials and Bill Barr, his own attorney general stating there was no evidence that the race was impacted by fraud or that the election was stolen.?

Muir: “Are you now acknowledging that you lost in 2020?”

“No, I don't acknowledge that at all,” said Trump, “I said that sarcastically. You know that. It was said, oh we lost by a whisker.”

Harris: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. So, let's be clear about that. And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that…world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you. And they say you're a disgrace.”

In response, Trump volunteered the autocrat Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary as a character reference. Not ideal.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) ‘Obama Care’

The evening turned to the critical issue of healthcare.? During his years in office, Trump tried countless times, unsuccessfully to repeal ‘Obama Care’.? While not perfect, Obama’s signature bill reduced the number of Americans without healthcare and insured those with pre-existing conditions.?Trump recently posted on Truth Social:?ACA “sucks” but now instead of killing it, he intends to replace it with much better healthcare.

Davis asked: “So tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a plan, and can you tell us what it is?” Trump started with “Obama Care was lousy healthcare…” and then pushed again he said: “I have concepts of a plan.” Devastating.

Harris: “…60 times he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, I was senator at the time…the late great John McCain, I will never forget that night, walked onto the senate floor and said ‘No, you don’t.’”

And so it went, charge and counter charge up to final statements. Other subjects of debate:? The Afghanistan withdrawal; Israel/Palestine/Hamas; Putin, Zelensky, Kim Jong Un, The Central Park 5; The FBI.?

What Trump got right

Not a lot frankly.?He stayed relatively cool for the first couple of questions. He delivered a few memorable lines, however outlandish.?Arguably his best moment came in the closing statement.?

“So, she just started by saying she's going to do this, she's going to do that, she's going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn't she done it? She's been there for 3 1/2 years…”? And, of course, this is where he should have started.

Falsehoods

The Washington Post fact-checked 55 suspect claims, stating that Trump made four times as many false or misleading claims as his opponent. CNN clocked 33 Trump direct falsehoods vs. a handful of misleading statements by Harris.

The scorecard

She did what she needed. She introduced herself to voters who say they still don’t know her; she was authentic, spoke to the American people, fact-checked Trump, was presidential, projected strength and played perfect defense. In short, she nailed it albeit without a knockout punch.

His ‘to do’ list: Stay on message, tie her to key weaknesses, avoid the name calling, not call out her race or be misogynistic, mean and angry.?He had to demonstrate some level-headedness and dispense with the conspiracy theories and the past. He should have hammered her on bread-and-butter domestic issues, the southern border and the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.?He completely failed, defaulting by playing to his base.?

Harris, the quintessential perfectionist, had done her homework, Trump hadn’t.

His obvious policy weaknesses: abortion, tariffs, deporting millions of immigrants.?Her policy weaknesses: The economy, being Biden’s VP, flip-flops: Healthcare (Medicare for all), climate change (fracking), immigration (decriminalizing border crossings.)

The aftermath

Trump rushed to the ‘spin room’ to defend his performance.?“I think it was one of my better debates, maybe my best debate,” he told Sean Hannity on Fox & Friends.? “Not sure whether I’d do another one, I’d be less inclined because we had a great night.”?

A CNN flash poll had Harris outperforming Trump, with 63% believing she had performed better. South Carolina Senator, long-time Trump supporter and sycophant Lindsey Graham, dubbed the evening a “disaster.” The Harris campaign reported $47M in funding from some 600,000 individuals in the 24 hours after the debate, the largest campaign haul since she first entered the race.

‘Swifties’ enter the fray

Taylor Swift endorsed the Harris team: “I've done my research, and I've made my choice” signing off, ‘Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.’ Of her 284 million Instagram followers, nearly half a million visited vote.gov in the 24 hours following her endorsement.

To further debate or not to debate

Harris: No. At this late stage of the campaign, it’s not worth the time and effort she’d inevitably devote to preparation.?There is little more to gain that she hasn’t achieved already. That said, if he calls for another, she must. Focus instead on economic and foreign policy speeches and local media in swing states.

Trump:? No. He is lacking the discipline to put in the work, and incapable of sticking to the talking points on the issues to attract undecided voters. Focus on shorter, more frequent campaign rallies and providing more specificity on policy, looking to the future, not the past.