There were very few surprises in last week’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris did almost everything her advisors and coaches encouraged her to do. Trump didn’t. Harris won the debate. It wasn’t close. But “winning” the debate wasn’t all that Harris accomplished.
Through her goading, teasing, taunting and baiting of Trump, Harris succeeded in getting under Trump’s skin in ways no other debate opponent has managed to do. Her approach was intentional. She knew exactly what buttons to push to expose Trump’s personality and conspiracy-driven weaknesses.
Trump — who is well known for name calling and efforts to demean his opponents — couldn’t take the personal attacks and couldn’t ignore criticisms of his record. He was particularly shaken by the Harris assertion that his campaign rallies are ineffective and boring.
So instead of trying to use the debate to highlight the weaknesses of the Biden-Harris administration’s performance, Trump sought to defend himself, his reputation and his effectiveness.
With little interference from the moderators, Harris essentially directed the debate. She avoided meaningful inquiry into her many policy changes and how she squares that with her claim that she still “maintains her values.” She dodged efforts to explain or justify the shaky performance of the Biden-Harris administration with the economy, immigration and foreign policy. She wasn’t challenged on how she managed to become the Democratic Party’s nominee without a voter-driven process and whether she has the mettle to be the commander in chief. And she wasn’t pushed to provide more than bare-boned descriptions of her numerous “plans” to deal with issues.
Instead, much of the debate focused on Trump’s performance while in office; his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection activity; his international reputation, credibility and influence; and his inexplicable insistence that illegal Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets in an Ohio community.
There was a brief segment of the 90-minute debate that dealt with Israel and the war in Gaza. The moderator asked Harris and Trump how they would break the stalemate and reach a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Harris’ response largely followed the carefully scripted narrative she used during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. She backs Israel’s security against Hamas and Iran and wants to pursue the longer-term vision of security for Israel through peace with the Palestinians and a two-state solution.
Trump responded by talking about Russia, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin would never have gone into Ukraine if Trump were president. He then accused Harris of “hating Israel” and predicted: “If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, and I’ve been pretty good at predictions.”
Trump claimed that the unrest in the Middle East was only made possible because the Biden-Harris administration freed up frozen Iranian funds which paid for the terror activities of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, and asserted that none of the unrest would have happened if he was still president. He pledged: “I will get that settled and fast, and I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended if I’m president-elect. I’ll get it done before even becoming president.”
Bold talk. But most of us were still shaking our heads about the dogs and cats — only to have Taylor Swift upstage the whole evening with her post-debate endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket.
All in all, not a very good night for Donald Trump.
