Tuesday night's debate was one other necessary milestone in a historic American election yr. This yr, the incumbent President of the United States had already announced that he wouldn’t run for re-election. The former President was convicted of 34 counts of great crimes and subsequently survived an assassination attempt.
Tens of thousands and thousands of voters tuned in to the thrilling showdown in Philadelphia, which was the primary – and possibly only – debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump this election cycle. Election Day is lower than two months away. In many states, including California, mail-in ballots will likely be sent out in a month. Five key takeaways from the controversy:
1) Trump was unsettled
A key a part of Harris' strategy was evidently to unsettle and infuriate Trump. And it worked. She began by poking fun at the dimensions of crowds at his rallies, a subject that has obsessed him since he began his campaign in 2015. In an unusual move, Harris invited people to attend Trump's rallies, saying, “He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He talks about windmills causing cancer.” She then said, “People leave his rallies early on out of exhaustion and boredom.” Visibly upset, Trump said, “People don't leave my rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” She continued to push buttons throughout the evening, from highlighting his 34 felony convictions to claiming other world leaders were laughing at him behind Trump's back. He spent a lot of the evening looking indignant, scowling and shaking his head.
2) Harris scored points on the abortion issue
Harris also put Trump on the defensive on abortion, calling the Supreme Court decision two years ago “the Trump abortion ban” and, in a single passionate moment, mentioning incest victims who were forced to present birth at just 12 years old. “Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term and have a miscarriage are denied care in emergency rooms because health workers are afraid they'll go to jail. And she bleeds to death in a car in the parking lot. She didn't want that,” Harris said. Trump claimed that abortions are performed on babies within the ninth month of pregnancy, which ABC anchor Linsey Davis corrected: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill the baby after it's born,” she said.
3) Both candidates tried to determine themselves as agents of change
Trump attacked Harris on illegal immigration and inflation and announced he would change course. “You've had three and a half years to fix the border, create jobs and all the things we've talked about. Why didn't she do it?” he said. Harris mentioned President Biden only a couple of times in passing. She sharply criticized Trump for his role within the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, his claim that there have been “good people on both sides” when Nazis and KKK members marched in Charlottesville, North Carolina, in 2017, and his try to divide the country as an alternative of bringing people together. “We don't have to go back,” she said. “Let's not go back. We're not going back. It's time to close the chapter.”
4) Trump endorsed conspiracy theories
At times he gave the impression to be talking to the audience he’s used to on Fox News, his rallies or conservative social media, quite than a nationwide audience of greater than 50 million people from all walks of life. He cited Victor Orban, the strongman in Hungary, as a personality reference for his leadership. He continued to insist that the 2020 election was stolen from him through voter fraud, a claim rejected in greater than 60 court cases, including some overseen by judges he appointed. He repeated this week's debunking of social media misinformation that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating family pets. “The people who came here are eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people who live there,” Trump claimed, while Harris shook his head and smiled. ABC anchor David Muir said the station called town manager in Springfield, and he said the conspiracy was not true. Trump continued, likely leaving many viewers baffled. “Well, I saw people on TV,” he said. Harris modified his mind. “That's one of the reasons, I think, why I actually have the support of 200 Republicans who used to work with George Bush, Mitt Romney and John McCain, including the support of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Congresswoman Liz Cheney.”
5) Surprisingly, California was not mentioned
Many political observers expected Trump to attack Harris, who hails from Oakland, one in all America's most liberal cities, as a “Bay Area liberal,” or to attack the state's lack of progress in fighting homelessness, its generous immigration policies, or its strict environmental regulations. He didn’t. And Harris didn’t mention Silicon Valley, Hollywood, or her home state. In the tip, she portrayed herself as a unifier of the complete country, saying in her closing remarks, “We all have so much more in common than what divides us.” Trump, then again, used grief as a theme, and summed it up in his closing remarks, “We are a failing nation. We are a nation in serious decline. We are laughed at around the world.” As Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, and Barack Obama demonstrated, voters often gravitate toward the joyful warrior in presidential elections. Many analysts, including Republicans like pollster Frank Luntz, say Harris won the controversy. “Harris just isn’t just winning. “Trump is losing,” he said toward the tip of the 90-minute contest on X (formerly Twitter).
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