Kamala Harris kept her poise in debate. Donald Trump didn’t. And neither did ABC | Opinion
.JPG "Campaign signs are shown at the Cumberland County Democratic Party Headquarters, above, on Raeford Road in Fayetteville, NC, and the Republican Candidates Resource Center on Owen Drive in Fayetteville, NC. Both sites have planned debate parties for the televised presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024.")
Kamala Harris won.
She didn’t need ABC’s help.
In a debate that begged for fair referees, the vice president remained calm on a night when a bombastic former President Donald Trump turned every question into a loud harangue.
Harris took the fight to Trump from the first moment Tuesday night. She went to him and insisted on shaking hands in their first face-to-face meeting.
He did, but then didn’t look at her again until he gave her a side-eye nearly an hour into the debate.
By then, ABC moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir had fact-checked him a half-dozen times, almost always to her advantage.
It was as if Davis and Muir never watch anything but their own ABC reporting.
They completely dismissed the possibility as foolish flapdoodle that the former president (1) might feel cheated out of the 2020 election, (2) might have welcomed but not ordered the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, (3) that the noxious Project 2025 was really cooked up for Ron DeSantis as the Republican candidate and not Trump, or that (4) somebody in Ohio might actually have eaten somebody else’s poor cat.
Harris didn’t help herself early with smirks and glares that detracted from her defense.
But Trump was bellowing his usual rambling attacks about “World War III,” calling Harris and her father Marxists and condescendingly calling President Joe Biden “her boss.”
If you listened on audio, this debate was as one-sided for Harris as the Dallas Cowboys’ first half against the Cleveland Browns.
But if you watched, Harris’ early double-takes when Trump was talking seemed as practiced and plastic as candidate Al Gore’s sighs against George W. Bush in 2000, or Hillary Clinton’s winces and frowns against Trump in 2016.
Trump had a plastic moment of his own, when Harris simply laughed quietly to herself and Trump thundered as if he had rehearsed, “I’m talking now!” and then proudly added the needle, “Does that sound familiar?”
Harris replied quietly, “Don’t lie.”
Before the night, Trump was expected to focus on immigration and fracking, which apparently is the second most important topic in western Pennsylvania behind who should play quarterback for the Steelers.
He criticized Harris’ reversal of position, but seemed to just holler “Fracking!” like “Communism!” and “World War III!” and “Joe Biden!”
Harris was expected to focus on abortion. She did.
However, Trump kept pivoting to student loans, as if paying back a loan is just as emotional.
For him, maybe it is.
One of Harris’ best moments came late. When Trump said, “I read where she was not Black,” Harris went over his long history of racism.
In the 1970s, Trump refused to rent to Black tenants. In 1989, he waged a public campaign to prosecute and put to death the Central Park Five, Black and Hispanic teenagers falsely accused of rape.
Then, in 2011, he led the campaign of “birther” lies complaining that Obama didn’t have a real Hawaiian birth certificate. He did, and the birth was even listed in the Honolulu newspaper.
Harris called it a tragedy that someone would run for president “who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people.”
It has now been 24 years since Trump first ran for president as a Reform Party candidate way back in the 20th century, and 12 years since an angry Trump saw Barack Obama re-elected and filed the very next day to register “Make America Great Again.”
Win or lose, this may have been his last night on a debate stage.
He made the most of it, packing every response with all the anger and resentment of 24 years, berating the country one more time to see things his way.
Harris sees the 21st century ahead of her, a century when she can help shape a nation.
But it will be a long time before anyone will agree to another debate on ABC.
If you want to know who had the best night of all, the answer is definitely Joe Biden.
This story was originally published September 10, 2024 at 9:59 PM.
