Kamala Harris’ Very Good Night

How the vice president beat Trump in Philly

Photo by Joe Richmond on Unsplash

Let’s get the key fact out of the way first. Kamala Harris won. It wasn’t even close. Here’s how she did it.

Harris started her demolition of Donald Trump before the first question was asked, using one of his own techniques – showing dominance by chasing him down for a power handshake. One of the mics caught her introducing herself, as if he was a senile old man. “Kamala Harris,” she said as she grasped his hand.

Throughout the night, Harris used Trump’s signature moves to keep him on defense. She called him weak. She said his rallygoers found him boring and left early. She said leaders around the world laugh at him. She used one of his favorite words as she called him “a disgrace.” Every time she did it, he took the bait like a starving trout.

Good debaters know they can dodge tough questions by raising new issues or correcting an opponent. Harris did this when she was prodded to explain her vulnerabilities including; her policy flip-flops, our tragic departure from the war in Afghanistan, and inflation. In each instance, a rattled Trump failed to point out her dodge.

On style, Trump stuck to his Cassandra role, announcing that, “We’re a failing nation. And it happened three and a half years ago. And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War III.” Harris chose to be her version of Morning-in-America Ronald Reagan. She called for Americans to come together. As Harris scolded him for his lies, she put him in his place as no one else has.  He doubled down. .

 “They’re eating the dogs!” he said. “The people that came in [immigrants] they’re eating the cats.  I’ve seen people on television!” he claimed. “People on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food!”

Trump’s claim was a lie, and he was fact-checked by  ABC News’s moderator David Muir, who said Springfield’s city manager refuted the dogs-and-cats claim. The moderators also knocked down Trump’s claim that in some states, officials allowed health care providers to execute infants moments after birth.

When the moderators let a Trump lie pass, Harris often did the fact-checking work, reminding millions of viewers, including many undecideds, that Trump lies all the time. However, she did this judiciously, refusing to get bogged down in the dozens of lies he told. Instead, she let her face do the talking, staring at him with amusement, incredulity, condescension, and disgust.  In contrast, Trump’s rubbery face betrayed frustration,  confusion, and most of all, rage. He was, in a word, unpresidential.

I confess that I felt more than a little anxiety in the run-up to the war-of-words. I remember the way that Trump mauled the last woman he debated, Hillary Clinton. It was the beginning of the end of her campaign. The stakes were high then, but they were much higher last night. Back then no one knew that Trump was true authoritarian, determined to bend America to his will. Yesterday, we all understood that democracy itself is at stake. So it was that Harris was under more pressure than any previous presidential debater.

Before the event, pundits took to the air and to print to say what they thought Harris and Trump each had to accomplish. The consensus was that she would have to shore up her policy positions and, where necessary, trigger her opponent emotionally. Trump, having long ago set a very low bar for himself, would have to avoid being too boorish (this could turn off undecideds), paint his opponent as extreme, and show himself to be competent. Harris achieved her mission. Trump did not.  

And then, mere minutes after she left the stage, Harris received an endorsement from the pop superstar Taylor Swift, whose  fans number in the many, many millions. Her announcement will likely motivate at least some of these “Swifties” to register and vote.

For Harris, it was a very good night.