Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump exchanged harsh insults for more than 90 minutes in Philadelphia on Tuesday, meeting for the first time ever during a debate at the National Constitution Center.
The forum came at a crucial time — 56 days before the Nov. 5 election that polls show is virtually tied. Voters in some counties in Pennsylvania, the most delegate-rich swing state, will begin casting ballots next week under early voting rules, with other states to follow in the days after. The campaigns have not agreed to any other debates so far, though that could change.
Here are some takeaways:
Trump, Trump and more Trump
This debate was about Trump. His lies, his temperament. His criminal trials. His refusal, again, to concede he lost the 2020 election or acknowledge his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. His inflammatory language about immigrants. His personality, which has now dominated American politics for more than eight years.
At almost every turn, both Harris and Trump talked about whether Trump was telling the truth — he made false statements about abortions being legal in some states after birth and immigrants from Haiti eating pets, among many other falsehoods — or whether he was fit for office. The focus on Trump often overshadowed tough questions directed at Harris, who has changed positions on issues such as fracking and the elimination of private health insurance.
Normally, elections are a referendum on the party in office. But Democrats have been trying to pull off something unusual in politics by instead making this one a referendum on the Republican former president. President Biden’s inability to prosecute the case against Trump in the June debate was one of the main reasons Democrats pushed him to withdraw from the race in July.
Polling shows anxiety about the economy and trepidation about the direction of the country in general, which 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 despite those concerns.
Trump has largely played into the Democrats’ strategy because he is so eager for the spotlight. So even questions that played to his arguments about Harris and the Biden administration’s failures ended with Trump defending his own record.
The Harris introduction will not be televised
Voters don’t know Harris well. 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 published over the weekend.
By focusing so much on Trump, Harris may have sacrificed an opportunity. Viewers heard early on that she was raised in a middle-class home. But it wasn’t until closing statements, when many voters may have been dozing off, that she discussed her history as a prosecutor in California.
She discussed some of her policy ideas, including an economic plan that would offer money to first-time home buyers. But her vision, to the extent she articulated one, revolved around “turning the page” from Trump and ending the divisiveness of the Trump era.
Trump appeals to the base
Trump has a chance to broaden his base, given widespread discontent over inflation and, to a lesser extent, immigration. But he chose instead to speak to his core supporters, echoing the type of language he often uses at rallies.
Polls suggest Trump is leading on the issue of immigration. But he may have alienated some voters with over-the-top rhetoric, cutting short a discussion about the economy, another issue where he could have scored points, to do so. “They’re going in violently,” he said of immigrants. “They’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous, they’re at the highest level of criminality, and we have to get them out.”
He said falsely that everyone in the country wanted abortion to be left up to the states, even though polls show a majority of Americans wanted to preserve a national right to abortion, which was lost with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. To back up his denial that he praised white nationalists who stormed Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 as “very fine people,” he cited friendly Fox News personalities.
“That story has been, as you would say, debunked,” Trump said. “Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse, all of these people, they covered it.”
To counter Harris’ assertions that world leaders laugh at him, he cited Viktor Orban, the far-right, autocratic leader of Hungary who has been adopted by the Make America Great Again movement.
“They call him a ‘strongman’ because he’s a tough person,” Trump said. “He said, ‘Why is the whole world blowing up?’ Three years ago, it wasn’t. Why is it blowing up? He said, ‘Because you need Trump back as president.’”
Harris baits Trump
Harris was clearly trying to get under Trump’s skin, and it worked. He scowled much of the night. She smirked. He would not look at her.
Harris brought up insults that she knew would trigger Trump. She invited viewers to attend one of his rallies and then mocked him for careening into odd topics and conspiracies, accusing him of ignoring the needs of average people. But the thing that really annoyed him was when she said people leave early from the rallies out of boredom.
“People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” he responded. “That’s because people want to take their country back.”
He then went on to repeat a false slur about resettled Haitian immigrants stealing people’s pets to eat them.
The exchange occurred during a question that could have been a win for Trump. It was about Harris’ role in stemming migration, something he and other Republicans have criticized repeatedly. But Trump barely made time to criticize her record.
This was a vastly different debate than Biden-Trump
The June debate between Trump and Biden changed the course of history. Biden appeared discombobulated, prompting calls from Democrats that he leave the race.
This one is unlikely to have the same effect. Trump got some shots in on Harris relating to the economy, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and immigration, even if he dodged some questions, made multiple false claims and missed some opportunities.
Harris lodged attacks against Trump that Biden left on the table, about Trump’s admiration for dictators, his pledge to suspend the Constitution, his divisiveness and his criminal record.
The race is essentially tied in polls and is likely to remain close until election day.
