Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump met for more than 90 minutes at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, their first ever meeting.
The debate comes at a critical time, 56 days until the Nov. 5 election, when the polls show the two candidates virtually tied. Voters in several counties in Pennsylvania, the battleground state with the most delegates, will begin casting ballots under early voting rules next week, with other states to follow in the coming days. So far, the two sides have not agreed to hold another debate, but that could change.
Here are some points to note:
Trump, Trump and more Trump
This debate was about Trump: his lies, his temperament. his criminal trial. his refusal to concede that he lost the 2020 election or his role in inciting the January 6th riot. his inflammatory rhetoric about immigration. And the character that has dominated American politics for more than eight years.
At almost every turn, Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump exchanged views on whether Mr. Trump was telling the truth (he made a number of false statements, including that post-birth abortion is legal in some states and that Haitian immigrants eat pets) and whether he was fit to be president. The focus on Mr. Trump often overshadowed tougher questioning directed at Ms. Harris, who has changed positions on issues such as fracking and the end of private health insurance.
Typically, elections are a referendum on the party in power. But Democrats are trying to do something unusual in politics by making this election a referendum on the Republican former president. President Biden’s failure to make a case against Trump in the June debates was one of the main reasons Democrats urged him to drop out of the race in July.
Despite polls showing fears about the economy and the overall direction of the country that would normally spell doom for the party in the White House, Democrats believe the anti-Trump vote is large enough to win a close election.
Trump’s hunger for attention has played so much into the Democratic strategy that even questions relating to his claims about Harris and the Biden administration’s failings ended with him defending his own record.
Harris’ introduction will not be broadcast on television.
Voters are not familiar with Harris: Nearly 3 in 10 said they needed to know more about her, compared with 1 in 10 who said they needed to know more about Trump, according to a New York Times/Siena poll released over the weekend.
The focus on Trump may have been a missed opportunity for Harris: Viewers learned early on that she had a middle-class upbringing, but it wasn’t until her closing remarks, when many voters were likely dozing off, that she spoke about her background as a prosecutor in California.
She spoke about some of her policy proposals, including an economic plan to provide funding to first-time homebuyers, but her clearly stated vision revolved around “pivoting” from the Trump administration and ending the divisions of the Trump era.
Trump appeals to his base
Trump has an opportunity to broaden his base given widespread discontent with inflation and, to a lesser extent, , but he has chosen to speak to his core supporters in the same language he typically uses at rallies.
Polls show Trump leading on immigration, but he may have alienated some voters by cutting short another issue he used to score points on: the economy. “They’re coming in violently,” he said of immigrants. “They’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous, they’re at the highest level of crime. We’ve got to get them out.”
Despite polls showing a majority of Americans want to maintain the national right to abortion that was lost with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, he falsely said everyone in the country wants it to be left to the states. He cited friendly Fox News personalities to back up his denial that he praised the white supremacists who attacked Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 as “very fine people.”
“That story, as you say, has been debunked,” Trump said. “Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse, all of these people covered it.”
To counter her claim that world leaders are mocking her, Harris gave the example of Viktor Orban, the far-right Hungarian dictator who is supported by the Make America Great Again movement.
“They call him ‘Strongman’ because he’s a tough guy,” Trump said. “He said, ‘Why is the whole world exploding?’ It wasn’t like that three years ago. Why is it exploding? He said, ‘Because we need Trump back in office.'”
Harris provokes Trump
Ms. Harris was clearly trying to put Mr. Trump on edge, and it worked: Mr. Trump grimaced for most of the night. Ms. Harris grinned. Mr. Trump wouldn’t look at her.
Harris unleashed a flurry of insults she knew would rile up Trump. She urged her viewers to attend Trump rallies, mocked him for diving into bizarre topics and conspiracy theories, and accused him of ignoring the needs of ordinary people. But what really irritated Trump was when she said people were leaving his rallies early because they were bored.
“At my rallies, people don’t walk away. Our rallies are the biggest, greatest rallies in political history,” he replied. “And that’s because people want their country back.”
He then repeated the false smear that resettled Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets.
The exchange came during a question that could have given Trump the win: about Harris’ role in stopping immigration, which Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly criticized, but Trump spent little time criticizing her record.
This was very different from the Biden vs. Trump debate.
The June debate between Trump and Biden changed the course of history, with Biden looking disoriented and Democrats calling for him to drop out of the race.
It won’t have the same effect this time around. Trump attacked Harris on the economy, the failure to withdraw from Afghanistan and immigration, even as she dodged some questions, made multiple false claims and missed several opportunities.
Harris filed attacks against Trump that Biden set aside, including his praise of dictators, his pledge to suspend the Constitution, his divisive personality and his criminal record.
Polls show the race is essentially tied, and it’s likely to remain close until Election Day.
