Kamala Harris gave Donald Trump a taste of his own medicine in tonight’s election debate. Three months after Trump cornered Joe Biden with lies on CNN, Harris responded, making him uncomfortable and confusing, positioning him as the irrational candidate. Harris didn’t need to resort to the easy way out of pointing out Trump’s obvious old age (a card he played against Joe Biden); she simply held her ground while confronting Trump throughout the 90 minutes.
The debate was a test for Harris and the focus was on her, but she managed to get on Trump’s nerves enough that the audience’s eyes turned back to him. The Democrat exposed the Republican’s contradictions on issues that are particularly thorny for him, like abortion and the storming of the Capitol. But he also exposed his lies on immigration and foreign policy. The moderators also played a significant role, repeatedly denying Trump’s lies. A fact that was not taken into account in the debate against Biden.
“A bunch of lies”
“As I said, you’re going to hear a lot of lies and this is not a fact,” Harris said from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia 20 minutes into the debate. The Democrat struck her first blow by denying Trump’s claim that there are states that allow abortion at nine months or even the execution of babies who are already born. It was one of the first lies that the moderators also refuted.
The second setback, and probably the most annoying for Trump, was when Harris invited citizens to come to one of her rallies: “I’m going to do something really unusual and I’m going to invite you to come to one of Donald Trump’s rallies.” , because it’s something really interesting to see. You’ll see during his rallies that he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter and you’ll notice that people start leaving his rallies earlier because of fatigue and boredom. And another thing you don’t know: you’re not going to hear him talk about you, you’re not going to hear him talk about your needs, your dreams.
With a single stroke of her pen, Harris struck directly at Trump’s ego and attacked him again from the new flank that Democrats have already built in Chicago: by portraying the Republican as an egomaniac who thinks only of himself. That approach may bear more fruit than describing the Republican as an “autocrat.”
Last week, an aide to Georgia’s Republican governor told the New York Times Like the fact that Trump focuses so much of his speech on himself, and not on his policies, could end up having a negative impact in this state, which will be key on November 5. The question this aide posed is exactly the one Harris raised tonight: “Is he more worried about himself than he is about me?”
Trump eventually went where Harris wanted and responded to the ego attacks. “There’s no reason to go there [a los mítines de Harris]. And the people that go, she picks them up and pays them to be there. So he can’t talk about my rallies. People don’t go. My rallies… we have the biggest, most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” the Republican rebutted, without addressing the second part of Harris’ attack where she described him as self-centered.
Trump, who has struggled throughout the past month to try to define Harris as a “communist,” ended up being the person his rival described him as. Worse, with this attack, Harris managed to derail Trump on one of the areas where he feels most comfortable speaking: immigration. The Republican, who spent his entire campaign blaming the Democrat for the high number of irregular border crossings, ended up engaging in personal attacks and his own hoaxes.
“Migrants eat pets”
The latest was to claim that Ohio migrants were eating residents’ pets. “People who come into our country are eating the dogs, cats and pets that live here.” “It’s happening in our country, it’s unfortunate,” he said without shame. The issue was deflected in such a way that Harris didn’t even need to bring up the record drop in border crossings.
Since Biden approved the executive order facilitating direct returns, the number of people crossing the border with Mexico has dropped significantly. In June, just over 83,000 migrants crossed the border illegally, according to U.S. border officials. In May, the number was nearly 117,000. That was the lowest monthly total since January 2021.
The storming of the Capitol
When the question of the assault on the Capitol came up, Trump found himself backed into a corner once again. “Is there anything you regret about January 6th?” the moderator asked. His subconscious betrayed him, and he first responded by speaking in the plural, before correcting himself. “We don’t… This group of people was treated very badly.” From there, he once again steered away from the issue of immigration to avoid giving further explanations.
Harris, however, offered a direct and very personal response. “I was at the Capitol on January 6th. And on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to desecrate our nation’s capital. That day, 140 state security officers were injured and some died. And that’s precisely why the former president was indicted and tried.” It was also around that time that the Democrat filed a lawsuit to remind all Americans that one of the country’s presidential candidates is a convicted felon.
Orbán, Trump’s only wild card
Even when Trump tried to promote his good image through his international support, he ended up hurting himself. He pointed to the praise he received from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, known for his ultra-conservative agenda and in the crosshairs of NATO allies for his friendship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
In terms of international politics, Trump also repeated what he has said many times: if he were president, he would have already ended the war in Ukraine. “Biden didn’t know how to stop this war, and now there are millions of dead, and it’s getting worse, and it could lead to a third world war. We’re playing with a third world war and we have a president who doesn’t even know if he’s still alive. Where is he?” he insisted.
But quoting Biden is like giving Harris candy and reminding her, “You’re not competing against Joe Biden anymore, you’re competing against me.” The coup has angered Trump, who this summer has come to fantasize about Biden’s return. After basing much of his campaign on attacking the president’s age, Harris’s emergence has caught him off guard. But the bidding doesn’t stop there: “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now, and we have to understand what that means, because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine. That’s why European leaders and our NATO allies are so grateful that you’re no longer president,” the vice president said.
Harris’ mission tonight was not just to confront Trump, but also to define herself to the undecided electorate that is only just beginning to pay attention to the campaign. Although she did not reveal any new details about her agenda during the debate, the Democrat managed to imprint on viewers’ retinas the image she had been looking for all along: that of a candidate for reconciliation and building a new future for the country.
That willingness was evident early on in one of the most tense handshakes in political memory: When it came time to shake hands, it was Harris who approached Trump’s lectern and extended her hand. A gesture that also demonstrated Harris’ willingness to reach out to more moderate voters and even the Republican’s own supporters.
It remains to be seen whether what Harris showed tonight is enough to answer the questions about her that many voters said they had before the debate. In closing, Harris repeated her big campaign slogans: don’t take a step back and build a new beginning. On the other hand, Trump followed the vice president, wasting a golden minute attacking her and portraying her as what he called “the worst vice president in history.”
