Kamala Harris crossed the stage, extended her hand to Donald Trump, and introduced herself. She won, unlike her dazed boss in June, the first 10 seconds of the presidential debate. This orchestrated civility yielded to angry squints, interruptions, shaking her head, inappropriate laughter, and face dances when her opponent spoke.
The debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in Philadelphia broadcast on ABC News came across as a far more competitive and combative affair than June’s debate between Trump and Joe Biden.
“You’re going to hear from the same, old, tired playbook,” Harris insisted of her opponent in repeating the same line she used in her CNN interview with Dana Bash. She unironically repeated that “same, old, tired” line twice again during the debate.
Trump effectively asked why the Biden–Harris administration killed the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States but allowed Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline in Europe. “The leaders of other countries think they’re weak and incompetent,” he maintained, “because they are.” He called the Afghanistan withdrawal “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. And, by the way, that’s why Russia invaded Ukraine.” He specifically hammered on the issues of inflation and illegal immigration.
Trump refused to answer whether he rooted for a Ukraine victory. Harris refused to cite any restrictions of which she approves on abortion. The vice president nevertheless scored on abortion, the issue on which she appeared most animated. The former president appeared in command on illegal immigration and foreign affairs. Trump took the bait on questions about whether he won in 2020, and Harris stumbled in invoking illegal immigration (Trump’s strongest issue), just as Biden did in June, without provocation.
President Trump appeared uncharacteristically stoic while Harris talked. Harris’s repeated interruptions coaxed a “quiet, please” from Trump when he attempted to speak. Her speech sounded nasally — even breathless — her cadence often accelerated, and her tone negative. She came across as harsh and, at times, unpresidential. Trump, too, struck a negative tone. Harris appeared rehearsed; Trump appeared not rehearsed enough.
The moderators, who largely played referee in June, here took the Democrat’s side in repeatedly attempting to rebut Trump’s remarks and not once doing the same for Harris, who falsely accused her opponent of calling for a “bloodbath” if he loses, insinuating that he called Nazis at Charlottesville “good people,” claiming that he seeks to impose a sales tax, and repeatedly invoking the “2025” plan of a private group as though it were Donald Trump’s blueprint for governance.
Linsey Davis and David Muir asked questions that, on the whole, favored Harris. They included such topics as climate change, abortion, Harris’ true race, Jan. 6, 2021, and whether Donald Trump really won in 2020. All of the aforementioned favored Harris; a few of them seem peculiar subjects on which to spend five minutes in 90-minute debate. Muir and Davis’ decision to insert themselves recalled the typical early-1980s Andre the Giant wrestling contest in which the Frenchman took on multiple opponents in a handicap match. It all seemed very Candy Crowley.
“We’re not going back,” Harris insisted in her closing statement, adding: “We can chart a new way forward.” Harris said that new way involved the creation of an “opportunity economy.”
Trump responded to her promises: “Why hasn’t she done it?” He pointed to the fact that she serves as the vice president in the present administration. “Why didn’t she do it?” he asked. “We’re a failing nation. We’re a nation in serious decline.”
Supporters of both politicians likely believe their candidates served their cause well. Neither imploded a la Biden. Neither delivered a knockdown let alone a knockout. Both scored at various times. This debate likely does not impact the outcome of the election that takes place in less than two months. It changed nothing.