Vice PresidentKamala Harrissoundly defeated former PresidentDonald Trumpin their first, and perhaps only, presidential debate.
We dont have to go back, Harris insisted, invoking the dark memory of Jan. 6, 2021.
Its time to turn the page.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris debate for the first time during the presidential election campaign at the National Constitution Center on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The ABC debate, held in Philadelphia without an audience, opened with the candidates on relatively equal footing.
The conversation then shifted into a discussion of abortion.
Trump again laid out his outlandish lie that Democrats seek to execute infants even after theyre delivered.
Weve gotten what everybody wanted, Trump claimed.
Harris looked Trump down.
She didnt want that.
Her husband didnt want that.
They dont want that.
But Harris cleverly used the question to bait Trump.
But then Harris veered off topic.
She chided Trump for his strange paeans to Hannibal Lecter and claims that windmills cause cancer.
The effect was like a matador waving a flag in front of a bull.
And Harris immediately had Trump seeing red.
First let me respond as to the rallies, he said.
Theyre eating theyre eating the pets of the people that live there.
And this is whats happening in our country, Trump insisted.
He then pivoted back to a defense of his events: As far as rallies are concerned.
As far as the reason they go is, they like what I say.
The entire debate dynamic shifted after that, creating a debacle for Trump.
He directed his seething answers instead at ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Harris, by contrast, settled into her groove.
Harris was perhaps at her best addressing a question about Trump having belittled her racial identity.
Next question, yo.
On Tuesday, she skewered Trump, instead.
This is the same individual who spread birther lies about the first Black president of the United States.
I think the American people want better than that.
Want better than this, she said, addressing Trump with withering contempt.
Habba toldRolling Stoneof Harris: I think she will make a run at get under his skin.
But, she added, hilariously in retrospect, that her boss doesnt get easily rattled.
Hisage and acuityare now under the microscope, contrasted to Harris, two decades his junior.
And here Trump stumbled.
Here, Harris also got the better of Trump.
I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump, she said.
