With Donald Trump declaring on Thursday that there's “no need” to debate Kamala Harris again, Tuesday night's debate may be the only heated battle of the presidential race.
So how has this showdown affected undecided voters in the battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election? When The Washington Post spoke to these independent voters in battleground states, it didn't help them at all.
Kevin James, 28, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, freelance photographer
James voted for Trump in 2020 and came into the debate undecided, but said she plans to support the former president again this time.
So how did he feel after the debate? “To be honest with you, I was even more confused. I wanted to hear how they were going to make our country better, and that was obviously not it,” he said. “I didn't like either of them.”
He said he wanted to hear policy solutions, but “all they were doing was throwing jabs.” “No matter which path they choose, no matter who they choose, these two people are not going to unite the country.”
He was most disappointed by Border Secretary Harris' denial of responsibility for the border crisis. “The most important thing for America right now is honesty,” he said. “We need answers on the border…” [It’s the] “That's her biggest challenge right now.”
Ethan Whitney, 25, Phoenix, musician
Sparring didn't make a difference for the Arizona man.
“I watch this debate and feel defeated,” he acknowledged Tuesday night.
“There were blatant lies coming from both sides,” he said. “Trump made some completely outrageous statements. Harris opened the debate by attacking Trump with factually incorrect statements.”
Neither candidate impressed: “Trump failed miserably and I think there's something sinister about Kamala Harris.”
Still, she “clearly won the debate. She was more eloquent than Trump and better explained what she would do as president.”
But the vice president failed to impress Whitney: “She is using rhetoric to convince swing state voters to vote for her without sharing her true opinions and thoughts on policy, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Vince Palermo, 45, Millcreek Township, Pennsylvania, small business owner
The Erie County voter confirmed her ballot for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and for Trump in 2020, but is undecided this year.
“Harris made no acknowledgement that she had backed away from progressive positions in 2020 on issues she once supported and now runs away from,” he said, adding, “I didn't like the look on her face.”
But Trump also wasn't satisfied: “I would have liked him to have hit back a little harder, with more facts and figures from his time in office,” he said.
Heavenly, 57, Surprise, Ariz., higher education administration specialist
“I thought Trump might have exercised enough restraint to win over some of RFK's supporters, but not anybody else,” said the self-described moderate.
“Kamala was well prepared and well-spoken. Trump seemed cranky and, while not completely crazy, couldn't answer questions he could answer well. He's behaving like a teenager who thinks he looks good by putting others down.”
David Kapanke, 65, Sun Prairie, Wis., retired commercial insurance underwriter
Kapanke began this campaign as an undecided voter whose top issues were immigration and reducing crime and gun violence.
A few days before the debate, he decided not to vote: “It's a first for me. There's too much danger on both sides.”
The showdown didn't change his mind: “I've been alienated by Trump, the Republican Party, Biden-Harris and the DNC. I don't get any trust from any of them and they don't get any trust from me. Sadly, the media doesn't get any trust from me either.”
