Kamala Harris and Donald Trump met for the first time on Sep. 10. Harris did not do enough to pick up the votes of those who are still undecided, and she surely didn’t flip any Republican voters away from Trump. If anyone flipped votes away from Trump, it was Trump himself.
When the two walked on stage for a fervently anticipated debate, Harris took the initiative to approach Trump, introduce herself and shake his hand. A stone-faced Trump bee-lined to his podium where Harris had to go the extra mile to meet and greet him. It was wildly awkward; the tension was tangible.
As the debate got underway, Harris took a few minutes to find a groove. The first question from the moderators was about whether the economy was better or worse than it was in 2020. Harris completely ignored the question. Trump then provided his usual economic statement: He built the greatest economy ever seen, and President Joe Biden and Harris tore it all down when they gained power.
Once Harris acclimated herself to the big stage, she began deploying tactics intended to derail Trump. Her motive was to deeply irritate Trump and spark his signature baseless rants. It worked.
As a former prosecutor in California, Harris was trained in vexing convicted felons. She utilized these techniques on her new target and Trump fell into her trap. Frankly, Harris presented Trump with a shovel and watched him dig his own hole.
A record scratched across the nation when Trump spewed a false statement about immigrants eating cats and dogs in the small town of Springfield, Ohio. The eyebrows of Americans shot up when Trump said Haitian immigrants are “eating their pets,” and migrant crime has turned the U.S. into “Venezuela on steroids.”
Trump’s brazen and absurd statements about Air Bud and Marley being eaten visibly caught Harris and the moderators by surprise. The moderators immediately informed Trump that what he had said was a debunked conspiracy and a blatant lie.
Trump lost his composure quickly, not to anyone’s surprise. Harris was able to control herself much better, remaining calm and speaking with confidence. On many occasions, Harris addressed the 67 million people watching the debate directly. She spoke directly into the camera and to the American people. Meanwhile, Trump’s eyes wandered throughout the dark room, seemingly paying Harris no attention.
Harris continued to present Trump with shovels that he used to dig himself a deeper hole. She brought up how people leave Trump’s debates early because of “exhaustion and boredom.” This comment noticeably angered Trump and he added a few petty remarks of his own.
“People don’t go to her rallies. There’s no reason to go,” he said. He couldn’t help himself, clearly aggravated, adding that Harris was “paying them to be there.” Meanwhile, Harris sat back with a slight smirk on her face while she watched her ploy play out just as she envisioned. She had successfully poked the bear.
However, Harris didn’t hit every ball out of the park. She whiffed on quite a few lobs from the moderators. On many occasions, she chose to address questions vaguely, and sometimes she ignored the question altogether.
On the topic of abortion, a question that has been nearly impossible for Democrats to answer, Harris stumbled over her words regarding whether she would implement any restrictions. Regarding immigration, one of the deciding policies in this election, Harris did not provide a concrete response. She avoided addressing the economy, cost of living and inflation — something that is front and center in the minds of Americans.
The main downfalls of this debate for Harris were her vagueness and reliance on clichés. Rather than deeply describe and educate millions of viewers unfamiliar with her policies and agenda, she chose to attack Trump and provide the American people with banalities that have been tirelessly preached. Rather than inform the public about how she would act as president, she spoke platitude after platitude, many of which are beginning to feel weary and ingenuine.
Nonetheless, Harris’ pitfalls were overshadowed by Trump’s emotional, erratic and embarrassing performance. If Trump hadn’t dug himself a deep enough hole, he then blamed the Jan. 6 insurrection on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming he had nothing to do with it.
Further, Trump couldn’t get the words “I lost in 2020” out of his mouth; he unwaveringly believes the presidency was stolen from him. Surely, Trump’s campaign team would hope and pray that Trump could leave the past in the past and focus on the future, but he simply cannot do that. It’s a problem “deep in his psychology that he simply cannot acknowledge that he lost,” Terry Moran, senior national correspondent at ABC News, said after the debate.
Harris had Trump on the defensive for the hour-and-a-half debate. Rather than allowing Trump to throw punches, Harris made him block punches. Harris seemingly dominated this debate, and many polls show the nation believed she claimed the belt, but her mistakes will not greatly alter the course of this election.
