The presidential debate that took place tonight in Philadelphia was very different from the one we saw in June, when a Donald Trump very calm, even moderate, he left Joe Biden dig your own grave. In his confrontation with Kamala HarrisThe former president returned to power, launching several personal attacks on his opponent – ”he speaks fatally” – and using a broad brush, claiming that many countries have reduced their crime rates by sending their criminals to the United States.
Harris, for her part, has tried to convince the public that the person to her right, whom she has called weak and narcissistic, is a relic of the past. Moreover, contrary to what has been said, she has her own political agenda – which she has not detailed, however – for the future of the country.
1. Kamala Biography
Harris is clear about who she wants to appeal to: the American middle class. So she used the debate to point out that she grew up in a middle-class home and therefore understands their concerns perfectly. He also turned to a friend of his mother, who owns a “small business,” to promise help for entrepreneurs. And to a teenage friend who, she says, was raped by her stepfather, to underscore his awareness of the problem.
Trump also didn’t want to miss any elements of Harris’ biography. In his case, to attack her, of course. He specifically referred to her father: a “Marxist economics professor” who, he said, turned his daughter into a communist.
2. Dose of centrism for the skeptical voter
Aware of the importance of skeptical voters, those who do not quite place themselves on a specific side of the political spectrum, both candidates took advantage of the debate to present themselves, ideologically speaking, as moderates. Trump has repeatedly refused to know anything about the 2025 project – an ultra-conservative road map that promotes, among other things, the replacement of thousands of federal workers with ideologically aligned people – while Harris boasted of the dozens of conservative politicians who declared their support for her after she appealed to national unity.
3. Afghanistan, Biden and the economy: Harris’ weaknesses
Beyond a few very specific measures, many expected Harris to explain her economic agenda in some detail. Or at least part of it. That didn’t happen. And the economy was precisely one of Trump’s most incisive lines of attack, as he cited rising prices in recent years and asked why Harris, vice president for three and a half years, hadn’t done more about it.
The former president He also did not miss the opportunity to talk about Afghanistan.. Or rather, the disastrous withdrawal – hasty, rushed and involving terrorist attacks – carried out by American troops during the first stage of Biden’s term. Harris tried to turn around by accusing Trump of having already negotiated with the Taliban, to which Trump clarified that what he had done was to force the Taliban to sign an agreement that led, among other things, to the cessation of attacks on the troops of the North. Americans.
4. Trump unleashed
Political correspondents in the United States had been relaying for days one of the pillars of Harris’ strategy: to shake up Trump. And he succeeded several times. Your method? Accuse him of many of the things the former president himself said about Biden: being a weak leader who is easily manipulated by America’s enemiessomeone who is disrespected by world leaders and someone who is confused and, because of that confusion, mixes things up too much. Similarly, Harris said that many people leave Trump rallies early because of exhaustion from his speeches.
5. Harris has a gun (literally)
At one point, Trump accused Harris of wanting to take away “everybody’s guns,” referring to one of the most sensitive issues in American politics: the right of citizens to own them. The vice president made it clear that nothing could be further from the truth. Among other things, she said, because she and Tim Walz — her running mate — have guns. That Walz has guns is no surprise; after all, one of his hobbies is pheasant hunting. But many people didn’t know, until tonight, that Harris also had one at home.
6. Lies
As is typical in these types of debates, lies—or nuanced statements that become pithy statements—emerged easily. One of the loudest came from Trump, when he claimed that immigrants in Springfield were eating people’s dogs and cats. The moderators had to remind him that city authorities have denied the rumor.. He also lied by downplaying the current inflation rate and said he had “nothing to do” with the infamous attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which is very nuanced.
Harris, for her part, said Trump left the country with the worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression, which is false, and inflated his administration’s investment in renewable energy. Enter something else. Trump has generally lied or exaggerated far more than Harris.
7. Nods to Pennsylvania
The fact that the debate took place in Pennsylvania, one of the key states to win the November elections, is a fact that the candidates took into account. This is evidenced by the nods they devoted to the region. Trump took advantage of a moment in the exchange to ensure that Harris attacked the hydraulic fracturing; a practice of extracting gas from rock that employs many workers in Pennsylvania.
Harris answered no, that in 2020 she changed her position on the issue and that since then she has defended the hydraulic fracturing. And he added that if it were not so, he would have acted against it during his years as vice president. Then, speaking about the war in Ukraine and seeing an opportunity to strike a blow, invited Trump to explain to the 800,000 Polish-Americans living in Pennsylvania his relationship with Vladimir Putin.
