Wall Street Journal - Opinion: Trump Lets Harris Off the Debate Hook
The former President let her rattle him, as he failed to make her defend her policies.
By The Editorial Board - Updated Sept. 11, 2024 12:36 am ET
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris debated each other with the skill, knowledge and dignity befitting a great democracy on Tuesday—well, at least they appeared on stage together. Americans were able to see the candidates their two parties have bequeathed for President, for better or (mostly) worse.
Ms. Harris, less well known than the former President, had the most to gain and our guess is she helped herself. She clearly won the debate, though not because she made a powerful case for her vision or the record of the last four years. Though she kept talking about her “plan” for the economy, she largely sailed along on the same unspecific promises about “the future” that she has since Democrats made her the nominee.
She won the debate because she came in with a strategy to taunt and goad Mr. Trump into diving down rabbit holes of personal grievance and vanity that left her policies and history largely untouched. He always takes the bait, and Ms. Harris set the trap so he spent much of the debate talking about the past, or about Joe Biden, or about immigrants eating pets, but not how he’d improve the lives of Americans in the next four years.
The Vice President had help from the ABC News moderators, who were clearly on her side. They fact-checked only Mr. Trump, several times, though Ms. Harris offered numerous whoppers—on Mr. Trump’s alleged support for Project 2025, Mr. Trump’s views on in-vitro fertilization, and that no American troops are in a combat zone overseas.
Tell that last one to the Americans killed by Iranian proxies in Jordan this year or the U.S. Navy commanders tasked with intercepting Houthi missiles in the Red Sea.
But Mr. Trump didn’t help himself because he let Ms. Harris put him on the defensive. We don’t have the transcript as we write this, but it’s safe to say he enjoyed talking about Mr. Biden more than he did Ms. Harris. That let the Veep keep saying she isn’t Joe Biden without having to explain how, or whether, she differs from Mr. Biden’s policies. Mr. Trump didn’t press the point.
He also fell into the trap of saying the last election was stolen, that the rioters on Jan. 6 were mistreated, and that the courts had ruled against him in 2020 on a “technicality.” Does any undecided voter worried about the price of groceries care?
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We almost laughed out loud when Mr. Trump even fell into a debate about the size of his rallies and whether people leave early. All of this played into Ms. Harris’s hands as she portrayed the former President as a man of the past and asked voters to “turn the page.” She took the mantle of the “change” candidate, though she has been in power for the last three and a half years.
Mr. Trump also let Ms. Harris off the hook time and again on her policy views. One of his weaknesses is that he can rarely marshal policy details or arguments that explain an issue beyond a slogan. He resorts instead to over-the-top claims like she’s a Marxist, or the “worst Vice President in history.” He didn’t even say she wants to raise taxes by $5 trillion, which happens to be true.
If Mr. Trump won on any topic, it might have been foreign policy, where he contrasted as he always does the current world disorder with the relative peace of his four years. Ms. Harris didn’t offer much more than Biden Administration talking points.
Whether any of this will be decisive for swing voters, we don’t know. The electorate is closely divided, and most voters already have a firm view of Mr. Trump. The wild card is whether Ms. Harris made a strong enough impression to persuade the undecided that she is worth a risk. If she did, she will owe her success to Mr. Trump’s lack of preparation and discipline.
Flush with its candidate’s success, the Harris campaign on Tuesday night called for a second debate in October. But don’t expect her to sit for any in-depth interviews. That would be risky. This was the only scheduled debate between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, and given what we saw Tuesday, the nation will be grateful if it is the last.
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3moIf Trump could be so rattled by a female debate opponent, how would he do when meeting with the world’s worst demagogues, like Putin and more, given how easy it is to manipulate him with fawning praise?!?
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4moYou are correct on many of your points about the lack of focus on the real issues by President Trump. However most of the negative issues were brought up by the two moderators and it is not ok to keep repeating lies and not dealing with the issues. President Trump was excellent recently at the Economic event in New York with substantial details given and most agreed with him. President Trump was much more of a leader by watching his facial expressions while Vice President Harris was out of control. In closing it was what it was because of the unprofessional manners of the two moderators of ABC so they set the Tone and President Trump did the best possible. I agree with your thoughts on his use of his buzz words and he needs to be reminded to drop the approach and show much more discipline for the next 55 days.