Escuchar
WASHINGTON.- Two scenes after the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump They left the outcome of the duel in plain sight. Harris celebrated, euphoric, from a stage before a group of supporters with a short and combative speech. “Today was a good day. Tomorrow we have to work. There are 56 days left, we have a lot of work to do!” she exhorted. Trump did something never seen before for a candidate: as soon as the debate ended, he went to the press room to speak to the journalists, a last attempt to centrifuge a defeat at that stage that was undeniable. “If he won, why is he here?” said one journalist. “I think it was a great night,” Trump rehearsed.
On the biggest night of her entire political career, Harris passed the test. And by a mile. After a tense start, she dominated the debate, set the tone and pace, beat Trump on almost every issue – he still has difficulty coming up with convincing answers on the economy – she had quick reflexes, she was agile, solid, implacable, biting, she sought him out even with her gaze and gestures, and deployed a lethal, carefully prepared strategy: to get Trump on edge. She succeeded.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris participate in a debate on ABC at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. Alex Brandon – AP
Harris had arrived at the debate in Philadelphia much more in need of a win and a good night than Trump. After a brief honeymoon – a jump in popularity, an avalanche of donations, endorsements, volunteers – the latest polls had given her campaign a dose of reality: The fight for the White House is extremely tight, and will be decided by the narrowest of margins. With just eight weeks until the election, Harris faced the challenge of convincing the skeptical corner of the electorate that she was the right person to lead the country. Her campaign hoped the debate would help her reach the “high ceiling” they see for her candidacy. The debate audience gave her the best chance of doing just that.
The breaking point came half an hour into the conversation, when they discussed immigration. It’s Trump’s favorite topic, and a weak spot in Harris’s record. But Harris pivoted to another topic, highly sensitive for Trump: his rallies. She criticized them, saying they were boring, exhausting, and that Trump never talked about the people. A trap, and a sting to the Trumpist heart. Trump took the bait, strayed from the topic, defended his rallies with his typical phrases, and there was no turning back. Harris, well prepared for her first presidential debate, found her footing, found her rhythm, and struck whenever she could, without pause. Trump never managed to unsettle her, never put her on the defensive: Harris seemed to have an attack and a counterattack ready for every issue, every moment.
The polls, and the subsequent evaluations, even among analysts more favorable to Trump, gave her the night. Harris managed to differentiate herself, to mark the contrast she was looking for, but, above all, she managed to avoid being cornered by Trump, leaving her in a bad position and defining her in front of the undecided voters who watched the duel. Mission accomplished.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris listens as former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 10, 2024.SAUL LOEB – AFP
One of the questions before the debate was whether Trump – prone to improvising and following his instincts and pushing the boundaries of the imaginary – would maintain his composure, as he did in his clash with Joe Biden, which he dominated by a wide margin. That did not happen. From the moment Harris attacked his campaign rallies, Trump was thrown off balance and never fully recovered.. His best moment came at the beginning, when he attacked Harris for inflation, called her a “Marxist,” said she “has no plan, she copied Biden’s plan.” But later, when talking about abortion, immigration, insecurity, or foreign policy, Trump’s attempts to gain an advantage were defused by Harris’ counterattacks.
Trump’s advisers and allies insisted before the debate that Trump should focus on the issues and avoid personal attacks. He did the opposite, and in the meantime made hilarious statements, such as when he claimed that undocumented immigrants eat people’s dogs, cats, pets, or that Harris wants to “perform gender-change operations on illegal aliens in prison.”
Trump also failed to capitalize on the two most favorable issues, the economy and immigration, unlike Harris, who, much better prepared, dodged that thorny territory and made the most of the segment on abortion. It is her strongest weapon, and one of Trump’s greatest vulnerabilities, and it was her best part of the entire debate. And it was also very clear that Trump missed Biden. “It’s important to remind the former president,” Harris said, in response to one of Trump’s mentions of her boss, “he’s not competing against Joe Biden, he’s competing against me.”
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate with U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 10, 2024. SAUL LOEB – AFP
Harris had two unexpected allies throughout the debate: ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. Unlike her CNN colleagues in the first debate between Biden and Trump, who only focused on asking questions. Muir and Davis did fact check live, flagging Trump’s lies or falsehoods and providing context for his responses. The moderators’ work ended up infuriating Trump even more and favoring Harris, and raised a lot of dust: on one side of the divide they celebrated that the journalists had exposed Trump, but on the other side, and from the Trump campaign, they were harshly criticized. An endless debate about the role of the press in a presidential campaign.
“These moderators are a disgraceful failure and this is one of the most biased and unfair debates I have ever seen. Shame on you ABC”lashed out on X commentator Megyn Kelly, one of the most listened to voices on the American right. “It was three against one,” she said later on her YouTube channel.
“Usually, when a campaign attacks the moderators of a debate, they know they have lost.”chided David Axelrod, former strategist of Barack Obama.
Trump himself lashed out at the moderators on Wednesday morning in an interview with Fox & Friends, saying the debate was “rigged” and that they were “terrible” and “three to one.” Still, he insisted that he won: “I think I did a great job.”
The analysis and readings of the debate were unequivocal: Harris won, Trump lost. But much less clear is the impact that the debate will have on the rest of the campaign, or the result of the November 5 election.
In 2016, Trump lost all of his debates against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and still won. In 2004, George W. Bush had bad debates against John Kerry, and also won. The race is virtually tied, and as Harris herself acknowledged shortly after the debate, time is running out. Democrats have to take a lead of at least four or five points in the popular vote to win the electoral college, and a vast majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Trump’s surreal statements about immigration, which have gone viral and been ridiculed by his detractors, are resonating with his base of voters. And Trump is now more popular than he was in 2020 or 2016. In fact, Harris and Trump also appear tied in polls about their image.
One of the questions before the debate was which of the two would succeed in positioning themselves as the candidate for change. Harris sought to differentiate herself from Trump, and also from Biden, trying to position herself as a new, fresh leader, a standard-bearer of change in an election in which Americans want change. In that area, she also seemed to have a head start. But whether she succeeded or not is a question whose answer is much less clear than the outcome of the duel. And Trump has proven, time and again, that he is an extraordinary politician, capable of overcoming any obstacle, controversy, drama or pitfall.
An undecided voter from Pennsylvania, which is shaping up to be the most critical of the swing states, showed off after the debate in a focus group organized by CNN the latent challenge for Democrats with many voters: “In light of the facts,” he said, “my life was better when Trump was president.”
Conocé The Trust Project
