Harris vs Trump: An overview- Phoebe G
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump met for the very first time on the presidential debate stage on Tuesday night at Pennsylvania with an estimated 67.1 million people tuning in to watch, a 31% increase from Trump’s June debate. A common theme has arisen between the performance of both prospective presidents- that Trump was “flailing” and “reckless” and Harris showed a “steady hand” and “won the evening”. Speaking of “steady hand[s]”, Harris, the “adult in the room” was the one to initiate the handshake, with Trump “trying to turn away from her”. Not once did he address Harris by her name, nor did he take responsibility for his past political actions or accept his abortion ban plan. Having watched the highlights of the debate, I believe it is safe to say that Trump seemed definitely more hassled by Harris’ jibes, with Harris taking the spoils of the evening (nearly 2-1 of voters said Harris won the debate).
Key Highlights:
Trump was “hunched” and “squinting” throughout the entire debate, “unable to finish a thought”, seeming very “frustrated…and tired”. Perhaps his most controversial comment of the evening was that “democrats and everyone” wanted Roe v Wade overturned- which was a blatant lie, making him look “unstable” and “unpresidential”. In contrast, Harris seemed “light on her feet” and “quite puzzled” by him.
Throughout the evening, Trump came back to the same lines of “world crime is low” as an explanation for America’s higher crime rates and threw baseless and unfounded statements, saying that immigrants “in Springfield are eating the dogs”, insisting that he saw this on television. Harris in return said that “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people” and he is “clearly having a very hard time processing that”. She goes onto say that Trump, as various military leaders have backed, is a “disgrace” and doesn’t have the “ability to not be confused”, which is “deeply troubling and the American people deserve better”.
When discussing the Russia-Ukraine war, Harris said that if Trump was made president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev, setting his eyes on the rest of Europe, (especially Poland), and Trump would quickly “give up for the sake of favour and…friendship” with a dictator who would “eat [him] for lunch”!
What was also surprising for some viewers was Harris’ stance on the Second Amendment, which protects people from owning a firearm unconnected with military service for “traditionally lawful purposes” such as self-defence. As part of her presidential campaign, Harris has repeatedly called for an assault weapons ban, limiting access to certain semi-automatic rifles that are used in mass shootings. Harris admitted that she is a gun owner and not planning on “taking anybody’s guns away”, but preventing children from “getting shot at school”, which Walz chimed in on X.
Nevertheless, the MSNBC (an American news-based TV channel) stated that they have never seen a “starker contrast in presentation from two candidates in any debate…”. Harris “prevailed at every exchange” and “at the humaning”. Some of the reporters said this was the best debate against him and even went so far as to say that this was the best televised presidential debate ever!
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