Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks during a presidential debate with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
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Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks during a presidential debate with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Going into Tuesday night’s debate, much of the focus was on Harris. It would be her first-ever general election presidential debate, with an opponent who had been on the stage many times. Questions swirled about whether she would be able to parry attacks from Trump, respond to criticism that she’s light on policy and, perhaps most importantly, whether she could appear “presidential.”
According to NPR’s senior political editor Domenico Montanaro, the answer to all those questions was yes. Despite a nervous start, he writes, “Harris was calm, in command and in control and looked to the future, distinguishing herself from both Biden and Trump. A few notable points about her performance:
- Harris was far more dominant than Trump during the debate, calling him “weak and wrong.” Harris responded to debate questions, then redirected and baited Trump on a host of issues.
- She got under her opponent’s skin by saying that people at his rallies leave “early out of exhaustion and boredom.” She also painted him as a bad businessman for inheriting $400 million “on a silver platter and then filed for bankruptcy six times.”
- Harris addressed policy, including tax breaks for parents and small businesses, as well as a first-time home-buyer credit for down payments. She also addressed her shift in position on fracking.
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Meanwhile, Trump was incoherent and lacked any serious grasp on policy.
Montanaro notes, “if he was a boxer, Trump was cut and bleeding in the middle of the fight, and by the end, was TKO’d.”
During the debate, Trump wandered through conspiracies about the election, who is currently president (spoiler: Joe Biden), immigrants he says are coming from “mental institutions and insane asylums” and the debunked claims that immigrants are eating pets.
Additionally, Harris had the former president on the defensive about his handling of the economy regarding tax cuts and tariffs, his jobs record, his administration’s pandemic response and Jan. 6.
On the overturning of Roe, a ruling that Americans remain broadly opposed to, Trump said, “I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it. And the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it. And I give tremendous credit to those six justices.”
After the debate, Trump went into the spin room to talk to reporters, which Montanaro notes is not something done when someone has had a good debate. There, he complained the debate was “very unfair” and called it “three on one.”
Harris did everything right – and could still lose.
Though Harris arguably handled Trump better than anyone has at a debate, the political reality is that she could still lose. She has raised more than half-a-billion dollars, staffed up and opened field offices across the swing states and fired up the Democratic base.
Still, Trump has a strong and devoted base, and the seven swing states in question – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada – are more conservative than the country at large.
Polls – including the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll out yesterday – have shown voters trust Trump to handle the economy, immigration and the war in the Middle East more than they trust Harris.
This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam. It was edited by Dana Farrington, Emily Kopp and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.