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On Tuesday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off in their first (and likely only) presidential debate in Philadelphia. YouTube
The left argues that Harris won the debate.
“Harris tipped her plan early on in the debate, when she invited the audience to watch a Trump rally. Here she was letting on something that only political obsessives know: The Trump who performs at rallies is a terrifying, rambling clown, whose incoherence can hardly be captured in the short clips that appear in news coverage. Harris also did something clever by noting that the audience leaves his rallies early because they’re bored…
“Trump is weirdly obsessed with his rally crowds… and challenging their size makes him spiral. From that point on Trump began to perform exactly as he does at rallies. He shouted endlessly, ranted and raved, had difficulty staying on topic or defining his concepts in a way non-superfans can follow. He made bizarre, false claims about illegal immigrants eating pets, blamed the January 6 insurrection on ‘out of control police officers,’ and repeated his false claim of having won the 2020 election.”
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“[Trump] never got around to making an affirmative case for himself. If any viewer was nostalgic for the early Trump economy before its collapse in his final year in office, that viewer must have been disappointed. If a viewer wanted a conservative policy message, any conservative policy message, that viewer must have been disappointed. When asked whether he had yet developed a health-care plan after a decade in politics, Trump could reply only that he had ‘concepts of a plan.’…
“Trump exited the stage leaving uncertain voters still uncertain about whether or not he’d sign a national abortion ban. He left them certain that he did not want Ukraine to win its war of self-defense. He accused Harris of hating Israel but then never bothered to say any words of his own in support of the Jewish state’s war of self-defense against Hamas terrorism. In his confusion and reactiveness, he seemed to have forgotten any debate strategy he might have had.”
David Frum, The Atlantic
“While Trump spoke dismissively of Harris, she systematically dismantled his rhetoric. Trump invoked Fox personalities Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity as validators for his claims and she cited Nobel-winning economists. Trump admiringly invoked autocrats and Harris noted a raft of former Trump staffers were voting for her.”
Philip Elliott, Time
“Harris, it should be pointed out, also dodged some of the questions… She did not explain why, if Trump’s tariffs are as destructive to the economy as she claims, the Biden administration has left them in place. And whether she would support any restrictions on abortion…
“But while Harris should be dinged some points here and there, those are not likely to be what the American people will take from this debate. In nearly every respect, the night belonged to her.”
Karen Tumulty, Washington Post
The right argues that the debate was close, and criticizes the moderators.
The right argues that the debate was close, and criticizes the moderators.
“Harris narrowly won on theater… and only in the narrowest of all possible senses: She probably stopped the bleeding. And she did so by baiting Trump into all of his worst instincts. I’m not even talking about the part of the debate where Trump, predictably, went on a rant about Haitians eating pet dogs in Ohio. Harris was well-advised to goad Trump about Charlottesville and January 6…
“Both sides will insist they won. The media coverage will lean Harris. I think she defended her corner well enough. I do not think the debate altered the trajectory of the race — nothing struck a new tone, only resonated older, well-echoed beats — which, given that we now have two full months of drift left yet to go, cannot help but favor Donald Trump.”
Jeffrey Blehar, National Review
“Donald Trump spent a lot of time contrasting his record with the Biden-Harris record, and Harris did nothing at all to distinguish herself from Biden. When she finally broke out in frustration to remind Trump that he wasn’t running against Biden and that she represented a ‘new generation,’ she then missed her one last chance to explain in any way how she’s a real rather than cosmetic change from Biden.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“The Vice President had help from the ABC News moderators, who were clearly on her side. They fact-checked only Mr. Trump, several times, though Ms. Harris offered numerous whoppers—on Mr. Trump’s alleged support for Project 2025, Mr. Trump’s views on in-vitro fertilization, and that no American troops are in a combat zone overseas. Tell that last one to the Americans killed by Iranian proxies in Jordan this year or the U.S. Navy commanders tasked with intercepting Houthi missiles in the Red Sea.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“The moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, did open the evening by asking Harris if she believes people are better off now than they were four years ago, but when Harris completely avoided the question to give a scripted little speech about her planned ‘opportunity economy,’ they did nothing to stop her evasion…
“The network’s effort to help Harris continued throughout the debate, most prominently by asking only a single meek question 45 minutes into the debate about her many flip-flops on policy and again allowing her to walk briskly away from her duty to supply answers…
“Asked to explain her reversal on mandatory gun confiscation and decriminalization of illegal immigration, Harris answered by talking about housing policy, Social Security, and domestic violence… ABC News let it go by. Harris said she was ‘going to discuss every one’ of her policy changes but of course did not do so.”
Editorial Board, Washington Examiner
