She had upset him last night and everyone knew it.
Kamala Harris, like any veteran lawyer, criticized Donald Trump point by point for his prosecutorial efficiency, accomplishing two goals. 28 percent of voters To those who say they don't know enough about her, she reminded Americans of who Trump is and urged them not to go back.
“I got the impression that Harris was someone who could be a responsible and effective president and lead the country. We have more in common than we have differences,” she said.
Trump has given the impression that even though he loves America, he hates Americans. He seeks to divide the country along the dreaded lines of race and gender.
As expected, Trump lied repeatedly, and those lies undermined the core of his argument. CNN counted 33 lies told by Trump A comment by Harris and one she may have simply misspoke, where she said the Democratic Party left the U.S. with the “worst unemployment” since the Great Depression. Perhaps what she meant was The Great Recession from 2007 to 2009.
Trump's lies were more obsessive and delusional. The most blatant were that Democrats support the execution of infants after birth, that every legal scholar wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade, that the Department of Justice had every lawsuit against him (try that to E. Jean Carroll, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, or Fani Willis), that “we recently had the highest inflation in our nation's history,” and that crime is down all over the world except here ( The F.B.I. Violent crime is down), and illegal immigrants are “taking over towns and occupying buildings in Aurora, Colorado” (which is not actually happening).
They said she lacked policies, and so did he, but character is more important than policies, and on the issue of character he was very vulnerable.
She effectively reminded Trump of his long history of racism, including a housing discrimination lawsuit brought by the Nixon Justice Department in 1973 and a full-page ad in The New York Times. demand the death penalty Referring to cases such as the 1989 Central Park jogger incident in which a black defendant was later found innocent, the false birth place allegation against Barack Obama, and the 2017 Charlottesville massacre, in which white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched and shouted racist and anti-Semitic slogans, he said “there were very fine people on both sides.”
And now there's a bizarre rumor floating around in Springfield, Ohio, that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating dogs and cats. “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people who are coming in are eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people who live there,” he claimed. Even his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is in a position to know what's going on. Acknowledged The rumor is probably false, and it's also clearly racist.
She outmaneuvered Trump on nearly every issue: Jan. 6, democracy, national security, immigration, the economy and especially abortion.
Harris delivered a masterful defense of the abortion issue, noting that three Trump-appointed justices had overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing many Republican-leaning states to ban abortion, with no exceptions in cases of rape, incest or taking the life of the mother. “Victims of crime and physical assault have no right to decide what happens to their bodies,” Harris said, detailing how this affects 12- and 13-year-olds. “This is immoral.”
Harris deserves credit for keeping her cool. For the first time in the campaign, she took on Trump directly. She needed to get to his heart, and she did. When she accused him of obsessing over rally numbers and making gibberish about Hannibal Lecter and cancer-causing windmills, Trump shot a combative face for the cameras that may have raised questions about his emotional stability.
Like Captain Queeg at his court-martial in “Mutiny on the Caine,” he repeatedly gives a deadpan response, and as he keeps veering off into exaggerated claims about “millions” of illegal immigrants entering the country and committing crimes like rape, murder and violence, she nails him with a sharp, decisive blow: “They forgave the terrorists. They forgave the common criminals. They forgave the terrorists. They forgave the common street criminals.”
She then nicely countered by pointing out that Congress had a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill on its way to passage, but that President Trump personally blocked it for political reasons, preferring to “go to the election with the problem rather than solving it.”
Harris managed to distance herself from President Biden, whom Trump has repeatedly denigrated. “You're not fighting Joe Biden, you're fighting me,” she said midway through the debate. Trump's methods are those of a decadent dictator. The country is in decline. If he isn't elected, we'll be “Venezuela on steroids.” And it's all because of immigrants. It's immigrants who take your jobs and commit crimes. Forget that the crime figures belie his claims. It's a platitude, a fantasy. Sadly, it creates loyalties at odds with facts.
Harris pointed out that economic analysts such as Goldman Sachs have warned that her policies would slow the economy and hurt GDP, and that her tariff policy of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports would lead to inflation.
She got him right: The generals who served under him, his cabinet members, his White House staff, and his own vice president all say he's unfit to lead the country. “I've spoken to military leaders, some of whom served with you, and they say you're a disgrace,” she said.
But pre-debate polls predict the election will be close. As Politico saysthe equivalent of a knife fight in a phone booth. After this impressive debate performance, we'll see if Harris takes the lead.
Trump has boasted about the endorsement he received from Hungarian right-wing strongman Viktor Orban, and Harris now has support from Republican heavyweights Dick and Liz Cheney, the United Auto Workers and superstar Taylor Swift.
First she walked up to him and they shook hands. Finally, they went their separate ways. It was a big scene.
Harris quickly challenged Trump to another debate, and it would be crazy for him to accept her invitation.
James D. Zillin is an author, legal analyst, and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is also a public television talk show and podcast host. A conversation with Jim Gillin.
