Donald Trump was upset. He was expected to talk about immigration, a topic he tried to raise during the first half hour of the debate. But his opponent, Kamala Harrisjust addressed his bizarre criticism of Hannibal Lecter and the fact that many of his followers seemed to leave the protests early. “Let me answer about the protests,” he said. David Muir And Linsey Daviswho was very capable of moderating the debate.
“We have the biggest protests,” he insisted, his voice growing louder, his speech growing faster, breaking the relatively gentle tone he had tried to strike early in the process. When he finally returned to immigration, it was to amplify a wildly racist, baseless, conspiratorial meme about Haitian immigrants that his running mate in Ohio, JD Vanceadvertised earlier: “They are eating the pets of the people who live there!” he shouted.
When Muir pointed out that the lie had been debunked, Trump replied, breathlessly, that he had heard it from “people on television.” He sounded pathetic. Harris—who squinted at him in disbelief, as she had throughout the evening—just laughed. She had brought out the real Donald Trump.
Tuesday’s debate was very different from the one in June: Trump lied and hid the truth throughout that debate, too, but it was all overshadowed by the president. Joe Biden‘s performance was abysmal. It was perhaps the most consequential debate in modern history, effectively ending Biden’s reelection bid. Will the ABC News debate in Philadelphia have the same impact? Probably not—mostly because those who bought into Trump’s bullshit have gone too far, and it remains to be seen how many swing voters will make up their minds based on a single debate.
But it’s a big change anyway.
While Biden struggled to counter Trump’s familiar rhetoric three months ago, Harris had the former president on his toes about a quarter of the way through — repeatedly confusing him and coaxing him into spewing some of the more bizarre, vile insults he usually reserves for more passionate audiences. “They destroyed the fabric of our country,” he insisted of Biden and Harris, before once again arguing for his 2020 election loss. Asked if he would concede his defeat, Trump replied, “I don’t concede at all.”
More importantly, Harris made a compelling case to voters for herself as the next president of the United States—showing composure, distinguishing her command of real policy from her opponents’ senseless improvisations, and speaking about the problems real Americans face. “You’re not going to hear him talk about you,” Harris said, speaking directly to the camera. “It’s important that we move forward, that we turn the page on this old cliché.”
That rhetoric, from Trump, was absurd even by his standards. Yes, there was his oft-repeated lie about Democrats supporting abortion after nine months—which is actually banned by a vaguely worded “murder” law—in an exchange about reproductive rights that would have required little editing from Harris’s advertising team. And he repeated a bigoted slur when questioning Harris’s racial background that was as appalling on Tuesday night as it was when he debuted it at a conference of black journalists in Chicago in July. But his failed attempts to steer the conversation to immigration were particularly bad: “They’re eating dogs,” he said of Haitian immigrants. “The people who come here, they’re eating cats.” It was downright fascist—a point underscored when Trump used his speaking time to praise the strongman. Viktor Orban of Hungary and to promote its relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, the dictator he boasted of knowing “very well.”
He tried to look tough, to instill fear. But when he spent the night hunched over his podium—his eyes glazed over, talking loudly about something he saw on TV—he just looked forlorn. “Donald Trump has been fired by 81 million people,” Harris said at one point. “He’s clearly having a hard time dealing with that.” Of course, Trump had nothing of substance on policy; at one point, when talking about health care, the best he could offer was a promise to reveal “concepts of a plan” later. In essence, he had nothing to offer an America that was all too familiar with his “American carnage” narrative: “We are a failing nation,” he lamented at one point.
Isn’t it tiring enough, after eight years in Trump’s shadow? “Let’s turn the page,” Harris said during the debate, “and move forward.”
