Presidential debate: Did Kamala Harris or Donald Trump win?
While the last debate saw President Joe Biden thrown off the Democratic ticket, this debate could make Harris or Trump the winner of the White House.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re laughing or crying.
Donald Trump, a man who was once president of the United States and may be again, stood on a debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night and repeatedly insisted that immigrants in this country steal and eat domestic cats and dogs.
(I immediately wrote to two friends, children of immigrants: “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were close.”)
Even after debate moderator David Muir announced that his team had called the city manager of Springfield, Ohio, where the alleged pet eating had taken place, and determined it was an unverified rumor, Trump hammered away at the podium: Dogs and cats, he claimed, were being eaten. He had seen it on television. (It must be said, a woman in Canton, Ohio, has was accused of killing and eating a cat. She is not an immigrant.)
And yet this presidential election is neck and neck. According to the latest Free Press poll of likely voters in Michigan, conducted before yesterday’s debate, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is ahead by one percentage point, 47% to 46%.
Against a man who claims immigrants eat cats and who has repeatedly falsely claimed that doctors in Virginia (or perhaps West Virginia) execute babies after birth. Against a man who is more concerned with defending the size of campaign rallies than discussing substantive policy plans, but who wants to run this country for another four years.
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And this election will be close.
I don’t even know what to say.
Given President Joe Biden’s low energy and his tendency to blather outside the electoral roll, And off the debate stage, Trump’s confused idiosyncrasies and outright untruths were clearly evident.
Harris played him like a fiddle, deconstructing his rhetorical techniques to the extent that they existed and leading him into long digressions about the size of his rallies or the opinion of foreign leaders about his competence.
More: 3 lessons from the Harris-Trump debate for Michigan
And historically, about half of Americans like Trump despite — or maybe Because — things like this Cat Eater Reef, and I really don’t know where that’s going to take us as a country.
When Trump burst onto the political scene, we all nodded sagely at the obvious truth that Trump was merely the catalyst for Trumpism, and that the cracks he exposed in American life would remain if he were teleported off the planet tomorrow. But eight years have passed since then. Four years of a mentally and emotionally exhausting Trump presidency that culminated in the January 6 insurrection. Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen and his lack of respect for democratic norms and byzantine aberrations were plain to see.
Harris did what she had to do in Tuesday night’s debate. She was presidential and commanding; she riled Trump but kept her cool; she spoke convincingly about the problems facing ordinary Americans and the devastating damage caused by the overturning of Roe v. Wade; she put the concerns of Israelis and Palestinians on a par with an unwavering support for the right of both peoples to exist; and if she shied away from making her positions more explicit on some policy issues, well, it’s a debate, and there’s no doubt that she’s capable of engaging in politics, which can be said more about her opponent than it can be said about her.
Who could win.
Will Trump lose a single vote because of his chaotic performance? So far, that hasn’t been the case.
Trump called Biden’s presidency the most polarizing in American history. That’s just one of many things he’s wrong about. The Trump presidency – Trump himself – polarizes the American people like nothing else.
Trump’s fans continually ignore his cognitive and moral deficiencies in favor of his pro-business tax policies or other controversial political issues he seems to support. Democrats look on in horror, unable to believe that anyone can follow this man.
This has become a fundamental divide in this country, and it is the most important indicator of who you are and what you believe in American social and political life: your attitude toward Donald Trump.
If Harris wins, it will probably be neither a landslide nor an abdication. It will probably be close.
I spent eight years wondering where America was going from here.
I still don’t have an answer.
Nancy Kaffer is editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: [email protected]Send a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we can publish it online and in print.
