If Tuesday’s debate were distilled to a single impression, it would be the image of a confident, controlled Kamala Harris and a visibly uncomfortable Donald Trump who kept his eyes downcast as he alternatively scowled and winced. The body language was as telling as the lies he spoke and the truths she scored.

A fitting summary came in Taylor Swift’s post-debate endorsement of Harris: “She is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

That contrast reverberated throughout the next 90 minutes. In closing statements, Trump again badmouthed our country as a “failing nation,” and Harris spoke of their different visions: “One that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past, an attempt to take us backward.”

Harris was presidential and in control from the outset, offering her hand to a reluctant Trump. She scored hit after hit against his fragile ego, keeping him on the defensive all night.

Little by little, the true Trump emerged: He repeated lies about Haitians in Ohio eating pets. He regurgitated nonsense about millions of immigrants “pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.” He wailed about a wholesale confiscation of guns, as if such a thing would even be possible. And in one of his most insane assertions, he claimed that Biden now hates his vice-president — yes, Trump actually said “hates.”

Biden’s response, tweeted early Wednesday morning: “America got to see tonight the leader I’ve been proud to work alongside for three and a half years. Wasn’t even close. VP Harris proved she’s the best choice to lead our nation forward. We’re not going back.”

Knocked off balance

Harris had Trump off-balance all night. He did not appear well-prepared, as if mesmerized by his own lies.

The most astonishing of them were that Democrats want abortion even after a live, nine-month birth and that “Democrats, Republicans and everybody else and every legal scholar” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned.

He refused three times to say whether he would veto a nationwide ban on abortion and extolled “the genius and heart and strength” of the six Supreme Court justices — three of whom he appointed — who repealed Roe v. Wade. He owns the results.

“Each individual state is voting,” Trump said — another untruth. Ten, including Florida, will be voting on ballot measures to protect abortion. Most of the other 17 states whose gerrymandered legislatures have effectively banned it do not allow voters to initiate constitutional amendments.

He also fluffed several opportunities to rebuke Harris on the nation’s economy, bloviating away a chance to explain why his proposed tariffs wouldn’t rebound on American consumers (to the tune of up to $4,000 per year). When Harris rattled off a list of experts who have questioned Trump’s plan to deal with jobs, wages and inflation — including 16 at Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business — Trump was left to bluster that “top professers” there had proclaimed his plan to be brilliant. None of those “top professors” have come forward.

Live fact-checking

ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis were the debate moderators. Unlike most previous presidential debates, ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis kept this one on track, fact-checking some of Trump’s most bizarre claims and persisting in seeking answers both candidates tried to avoid.

Moderators challenged Harris on positions she has changed on fracking, a mandatory buyback of assault weapons, and border security. Harris deftly turned the question into a discourse on her values, then pinned the blame on Trump for killing a conservative border security bill she supported.

Muir asked Trump why he did that. He didn’t answer the question.

Trump supporters may argue that the moderation was one-sided, but the reality is that Trump sunk himself, again and again. In another astonishing moment, Trump boasted of his support from Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he called “one of the most respected men.” Orban is an incipient dictator who has erased much of Hungary’s democracy.

Trump also baselessly claimed that neither Russia’s attack on Ukraine nor the Hamas attack on Israel that provoked the Gaza war would have started had he still been president. He also repeated his fatuous boast that, if elected again, he’d halt the war in Ukraine before even taking office.

That gave Harris the opportunity for one of the night’s best retorts, in which she made herself look strong and Trump weak on foreign policy.

“It is well known,” Harris said, “that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on Day One, according to himself … and it is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they’re so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.

“And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace. That is why we understand that we have to have a president who is not consistently weak and wrong on national security, including the importance of upholding and respecting in highest regard our military.”

Harris was telling the truth. At least two dozen former Trump appointees, including former chief of staff John Kelly (who told CNN that Trump “has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law”) former Attorney General Bill Barr, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and two former secretaries of defense (Mark Esper and Jim Mattis) have said they will not vote for Trump.

On MSNBC, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele said Harris was winning the debate from the handshake on.

“[H]e looked small, he looked withered, he looked beaten,” Steele said. “But most importantly, he looked pissed. And there’s nothing worse than a pissed bigot on a stage with a woman he can’t control.”

The only thing worse, perhaps, would be Trump on the world’s stage again. But hopefully, enough voters watched this debate and know the right answer.

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The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.

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