Debate Recap: Harris Played the Tune and Trump Danced To It

It wasn’t ugly in the way that the June debate between President Biden and Trump was ugly. That was ugly on both sides with Biden’s raspy voice and weak stature shocking much of the country – including congressional Democrats – contrasted with Trump’s confident-but-delusional view of the world. No, this was ugly in the sense that one of the candidates was beaten unmercifully by the other. (Debate transcript here)

Kamala Harris exuded confidence from the moment that she walked onto the stage. She went straight to the lecture where Donald Trump stood and introduced herself, putting forward her hand. From there, he danced to her tune almost the whole night.

It did take Harris a few minutes to find her footing. She notably didn’t give a straight answer to the first question, are voters better off than four years ago, instead presenting some of her economic plans.

And Trump did have a few good jabs. Early in the debate, he pointed out that Harris’s policy proposals are often similar to his and joked that he should send her a MAGA hat.

But Trump could not stay on message. Harris put out the bait and Trump took it every time. It all started when Harris poked Trump about the size of the crowds at his rallies. On a subsequent question about immigration, one of his strongest areas, Trump jumped back onto the topic of rally crowds, a topic that only matters to him.

It went like that for the rest of the night. Harris played the tune and Trump danced to it.

The low point of the debate – probably the lowest point in any debate I’ve watched – was when Trump latched onto the discredited internet claim that illegal immigrants are killing and eating pets.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said in what will go down in history as the most bizarre presidential debate quote ever. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

The body language at this point was classic. Trump addressed the camera with his old-man-yelling-at-kids-on-the-lawn scowl while Kamala laughed at him. This didn’t seem to be a rehearsed laugh that candidates often do on the split screen to denote disagreement with what’s being said. This was a genuine WTF-I-can’t-believe-he’s-saying-this laugh.

From here on out, Kamala seemed to have fun while Trump seemed frustrated and angry. The Former Guy grew red-faced while the vice president scored point after point.

The claim about the dogs and cats was quickly fact-checked. There have been no reports of immigrants killing these household pets, although the Federalist claims to have police reports about Haitians killing geese in Ohio.

If there’s any doubt, a post on the platform formerly known as Twitter by Erick Erickson confirmed not only that the claim was a lie (although Trump could use the George Costanza defense that it’s not a lie if you believe it) but that it damaged Trump immeasurably.

In an uncharacteristically all-caps and unhinged post, Erickson wrote:

After that, it was all over. Harris scored point after point on Trump’s tax hikes, his threat to democracy, and his lack of fitness to lead while Trump did himself no favors.

Another very damaging moment came early in the debate on the question of abortion. Trump attempted to deflect JD Vance’s claim that he would veto a national abortion ban while still trying to maintain a pro-life image. He also waded into the IVF controversy. I don’t think he did himself any good here and likely damaged his stance with his own base more than he helped himself with moderates.

Trump also weakened his running mate here, throwing him under the bus by saying, “I didn’t discuss it with JD” even though Vance claimed to know Trump’s thinking on the issue.

A final important moment came on Ukraine. Trump couldn’t say that he wanted Ukraine to win and waffled on how he would end the war quickly without simply handing the country over to Vladimir Putin. Harris savaged him in response, sounding a lot like a Reagan-Bush Republican.

“The reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up. And that’s not who we are as Americans,” Harris responded.

“Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO,” she added before twisting the knife by saying, “Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?”

This was not a policy debate. Trump failed to press home the attack on Harris’s weaknesses such as immigration, inflation, and the Afghan withdrawal.

This was a debate about whether Donald Trump was fit to serve as commander-in-chief, and Trump failed to make the case that he could handle the job. Ironically, the convicted felon was taken apart by a former prosecutor in a cross-examination reminiscent of Perry Mason or Matlock tricking a witness into confessing on the stand.

Having said that, Trump’s performance was not as bad as Biden’s in June. Trump won’t be forced out of the race. Republicans don’t have the time or influence over their candidate even if they had the inclination, which I doubt they do. Trump will finish the race, but Biden lost the presidency at the June debate and Donald Trump lost the presidency last night.

I’ll add a word about the moderators here. It is a debate tradition for the losing side to complain about the moderators. Democrats did it in June and Republicans were doing it last night. There is always some justification for the complaints, but I think candidate quality matters a lot. When a candidate demands as much attention as Donald Trump with his whoppers, it’s easy to let Harris’s smaller fibs and misstatements slide by.

For years, I’ve heard that debates don’t matter. For years, they didn’t. But now we have had two of the most consequential debates in our history within three months of each other. We live in interesting times, as the purported ancient Chinese curse says.

Harris was absolutely right that there is a stark difference between the choices. Trump is looking back and looking out mostly for himself. Harris is looking ahead to the future, even if I don’t completely agree with her vision.

It will still be a close race because we are a narrowly divided nation, but I believe that Harris’s performance last need will give her the boost that she needs to close the deal in the swing states (or at least enough of them to carry the Electoral College). Despite the spin, it’s difficult for anyone to watch last night’s debate and argue that Trump should be president for another four years.