Harris baits and batters Trump: 3 takeaways from the Harris-Trump debate

The last presidential debate in June filled Democrats with dread and ultimately forced the sitting president to pull the plug on his candidacy.

Tuesday’s night’s face-off in Philadelphia produced a more evenly matched fight, but Kamala Harris acquitted herself successfully over the 90-minute showdown, putting to bed Democratic Party anxiety about her ability to stand toe-to-toe with Donald Trump by aggressively prosecuting a case against him.

She proved herself not only thoroughly prepared, but cleverly able to lay a trap.

“Given that Harris was more undefined to voters and had a greater degree of difficulty heading into tonight’s debate, she overall performed better. She didn’t perform like this was her first presidential debate against a much more seasoned debater,” said Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan.

The former president and current vice president tangled over the economy, abortion rights, immigration and the war in Ukraine in the single biggest event in the 2024 presidential campaign since Joe Biden’s departure from the race.

It came at a time when Harris’ post-convention glow has dimmed, with battleground-state polling demonstrating an effectively tied contest in the chase for 270 electoral votes.

As the debate progressed, Trump was able to land scattered blows against Harris, but she avoided the kind of major slip-up his campaign was hoping to capitalize on in the final 54 days of the campaign.

Here are three takeaways from the only scheduled debate between Harris and Trump:

HARRIS BAITED TRUMP OFF HIS BEST ISSUE

The question centered on border security and why the Biden administration waited six months to take action on the crisis. It’s one of the weakest issues for Harris to defend given the surge of illegal southern border crossings during the beginning of the Biden administration.

But after briefly leaning into her own past prosecutorial record, Harris switched directions to deploy a presumably rehearsed missive on Trump’s rallies. She referenced his long tangents and talked about attendees leaving “early out of exhaustion and boredom.”

“The one thing he will not talk about is you,” Harris said.

The pre-meditated set of lines was pure political bait to deflect away from a tough issue and misdirect Trump. And it worked in the moment.

Instead of spending his entire time litigating the Biden-Harris’ record on border security, Trump dove down a rabbit hole defending the crowd size at his events and reverting to a debunked story about migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats,” Trump said. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country and it’s a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, the reason they go is they like what I say.”

ABC anchor David Muir said the city manager in Springfield said there had been no credible reports of pets being harmed or abused by immigrants in the community.

Trump failed to drill home two of his most popular proposals, increasing funding for the police and deputizing the National Guard to assist with removing gang members and criminals living illegally in the country.

Harris could only laugh at her coup at triggering her opponent.

“Talk about extreme,” she said.

TRUMP STRUGGLED ON HOW TO ATTACK HARRIS

Harris’ chief political problem is that she is perceived as more liberal than the average American voter.

In the New York Times/Siena College poll taken last week, 44% of voters labeled Harris as “too liberal or progressive,” compared to just 32% who feel Trump is “too conservative.”

But instead of hammering home Harris’ past history of far-left positions, Trump offered a multi-pronged approach, veering between calling her rudderless and a communist.

“She has no policy. Everything that she believed three years ago, four years ago is out the window,” Trump said. “She’s going to my philosophy now.”

He even joked, “I was going to send her a MAGA hat. She’s gone to my philosophy.”

But a few seconds later, instead of branding her as a flip-flopper, he dubbed her “a Marxist, everybody knows that.”

Earlier in the debate, during a section on the economy, he chose to say Harris’ plan could be boiled down to a few words, “Like, run Spot run.”

The risk in Trump’s vacillating is that low-information voters may not know that Harris used to oppose fracking and had expressed support for decriminalizing illegal border crossings.

Even conservatives bemoaned Trump’s lack of focus.

“This is a woman who bailed out BLM rioters and has amplified every race hoax for the last thirty years. Trump should have pointed that out. Some crucial missed opportunities tonight,” posted Matt Walsh, a conservative influencer, on X to his 3 million followers.

ABORTION AND THE ECONOMY DOMINATE

They were the first two issues the moderators asked the candidates about and they were the topics Trump and Harris spent the most time addressing, according to a New York Times tracker.

On the economy, Harris completely dodged a question on whether the country is better off than it was four years ago. She acknowledged costs are too high by offering a tax cut for families with children and then quickly pivoted to attacking Trump’s proposed tax cuts for the wealthy.

“What we’ve done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” she said in defending the Biden administration.

Trump boasted about creating a sterling economy that was hobbled only by the pandemic. He said the Biden administration benefited from “bounce back jobs” that his administration fostered and tried to tie Harris to Biden.

“Remember this: She is Biden. She’s trying to get away from Biden … she is Biden, the worst inflation we’ve ever had,” Trump said.

Harris was most comfortable on the issue of abortion, an issue that she has used to exploit a severe gender gap between the candidates.

She accused Trump of wanting to sign a national abortion ban even though the former president said he would not do so.

“I’m not signing a ban because there’s no reason to sign a ban,” Trump said.

Trump was again called out by moderators after claiming that Democrats perform abortions after a baby is born.

“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after its born,” said ABC’s Linsey Davis.

It left conservatives howling bias, even as many grumbled about Trump’s overall performance.

“It is a little bit hard to complain about the refs when you aren’t making your own jump shots,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican commentator, on CNN.