Vice President Kamala Harris started the controversy Tuesday night time with a energy transfer—strolling proper as much as a befuddled Donald Trump and shaking his hand. It signaled who was the boss, and she or he took command of the controversy from the beginning. For 90 minutes, Trump was pressured to reply to Harris’ assaults whereas she ignored his.
In query after query, Harris took laborious, targeted, and efficient swipes at an more and more agitated Trump. More and more rattled, Trump’s voice sped up, louder and louder till he was yelling into his microphone, sounding hysterical, repeating lies like “after birth abortions”—frightening a uncommon fact-check from the moderators. In reality, a couple of.
“I’m not in favor of an abortion ban,” Trump barked, which is able to set off the best wing after he flopped all over on whether or not he’d vote for the Florida poll initiative legalizing abortion within the state. (Trump in the end mentioned he’ll vote in opposition to abortion rights in his state.)
He mentioned he didn’t speak to his vice presidential nominee, which doesn’t converse nicely for both him, Sen. JD Vance, or the ticket total. Then he claimed he has been a “leader” on IVF, which is able to additional enrage his evangelical foot troopers.
And to what finish? Nobody who believes in selection goes to imagine Trump is their good friend.
Harris hit Trump for sabotaging the bipartisan immigration deal in Congress, after which mocked him for his boring rallies, inviting viewers to really attend a Trump rally to see for themselves for his nonsense. Trump took the bait, saying loopy issues like “Harris pays people for her rallies”—one thing simply disproved by the attention take a look at.
Moderators couldn’t assist however provide a forceful and repeated truth examine when he insisted the racist lie that “Haitians are eating dogs and cats”—pushed by his personal working mate—is actual. Harris burst out laughing. It was next-level unhinged, and can virtually definitely function prominently in post-debate clips.
Trump additionally attacked the FBI; claimed he was shot due to Democrats, though his assailant was a registered Republican; insisted Democrats are a risk to democracy; cried that he wasn’t given sufficient credit score for his disastrous COVID response; sputtered Harris is “against the defund the police”; claimed photo voltaic farms are an issue as a result of they take desert soil; demanded all types of individuals be prosecuted; claimed then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi was supposed to herald the Nationwide Guard throughout his Jan. 6 rebel; claimed that it was factor that Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban is known as a “strongman”; yelled “our country has gone to hell” and that he might’ve “let [the country] rot”; and flubbed the identify of the highest Taliban chief—and flubbed it confidently unsuitable.
He claimed in almost each reply that the Biden-Harris administration was the worst within the historical past of the world. His sophomoric hyperbole doesn’t play in his personal rallies anymore, and it definitely wasn’t enjoying Tuesday night time. It was repetitive, rote, tedious, and boring.
And for all of the media hysteria about Harris’ coverage plans, when requested by moderators about Trump’s Obamacare substitute plan, it was clear he had none. Pressed for a plan, he stuttered, “I have concepts of a plan.”
In a simply world, Trump’s utter incapability to have a solution must be the top of his charmed media protection and marketing campaign.
He additionally talked. Quite a bit.
In the meantime, Harris gave the impression to be having enjoyable, getting Trump on the ropes and maintaining him there.
“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” she quipped, sticking the shiv in. “Clearly, he’s having a really troublesome time processing that.”
She ignored his assaults (past laughing or wanting on bemused—fertile territory for one million TikToks). And by ignoring his assaults and launching her personal, Trump couldn’t assist however take the bait each single time. She landed hits on his crowd obsession, his anti-choice report, and his love for dictators.
“It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on Day One,” she mentioned. She slammed his want to surrender Ukraine to Russia.
“If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv,” she mentioned. “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.”
She was human, with private anecdotes and heartfelt appeals to her work for the American individuals—a stark distinction to shouting, indignant Trump.
And he or she landed maybe one of the best blow of the night time when she requested individuals to concentrate to Trump’s rallies, and the way he by no means talks about what he’ll do for voters, targeted as an alternative on conspiracy theories and private grievances. Or was it her sensible soliloquy on Trump’s historical past of divisive racism?
Trump by no means made eye contact with Harris. In the meantime, Harris would look proper at Trump when ripping him aside. That, in itself, was as a lot an influence transfer as her preliminary handshake.
The moderators, David Muir from “World News Tonight” and ABC Information anchor Linsey Davis, have been good. No nonsense. They adopted up when Trump wouldn’t reply a query. They fact-checked Trump’s nonsense a number of occasions, on every little thing from abortion to the 2020 election.
Consider it or not, the primary debate between Trump and President Joe Biden barely budged ballot numbers. The pre-debate narrative was “Trump lies and Biden is old,” and that’s precisely what individuals noticed. It was baked in.
For this debate, it was “Trump lies and Harris doesn’t have any ideas.” And sure, individuals noticed Trump lie, however additionally they noticed him lose his composure, spittle flying as he screamed about canine and cats getting eaten and different nutso conspiracies.
As for Harris, they noticed her in prosecutor mode, understanding her shit, and dominating Trump. She started the night time with an influence transfer handshake, and she or he ended it with one other one:
Will it transfer numbers? Who is aware of? Voters are bizarre. But when conservatives really do hate weak point, they are going to be profoundly shook at how weak, small, and previous Trump regarded Tuesday. As of now, they’re attempting guilty the moderators. Right here is the man in command of Trump’s get-out-the-vote operation:
Democrats, we’ve got an important candidate. Now we work laborious to carry it dwelling.
Let’s do that.
Donate $10—or no matter you’ll be able to—to ship Kamala Harris to the White Home.
