2024-09-14 12:13:47
Kamala Harris repeatedly cornered Donald Trump on Tuesday during a presidential election debate peppered with personal and political attacks from which the Democrat emerged unscathed.
So much so that her campaign team stated that “Harris is ready for a second debate.”
Singer Taylor Swift also liked the song, promising to vote for this “warrior” because she “fights for the rights and causes” she identifies with.
A very useful support given her enormous influence on millions of young people. And of course she had the support of her husband Doug Emhoff: “You won the debate, but we have not won anything else,” he commented.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” acknowledged the 59-year-old vice president and Democratic candidate.
His rival and former president Trump, 78, also claimed victory. On his platform Truth Social, he called it “his best debate.”
– «Harris won» –
“Trump did very poorly and Harris won by a wide margin,” said political scientist Larry Sabato.
“This may not move the polls very much,” which are currently very close with eight weeks to go before the election, recalled Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University. “But she pushed him toward the kind of speech that illustrates the chaos he brought to the political scene.”
The debate on ABC began with a handshake between the two, but sparks flew almost from the first minute.
Standing behind the lectern, he remained serious, his gaze never leaving the camera. She turned her head from time to time to look at him with a sly look throughout the hour and a half debate broadcast from Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy in the east of the country.
“He left us with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression (…) the worst public health epidemic in a century (and) the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War, and what we’ve done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” Harris said.
– Personal attacks –
She also accused him of spreading a “bunch of lies” about abortion that “insult women.”
Trump called her a “Marxist” and went on at length about his favorite topic: immigration.
“Many of these people who arrive are criminals, and that is also bad for our economy,” he said.
“They are taking jobs that are now held by African-Americans and Hispanics and also by unions,” the Republican said, as part of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
He went further, repeating the lie that migrants eat “dogs,” “cats” and “the pets” of the inhabitants of a city in Ohio (northeast), a rumor spread since Monday by Republicans and denied by the authorities.
As the debate progressed, the tone became more aggressive.
– «I’m talking» –
“I’m talking, if you don’t mind, please,” he told the vice president at one point.
Trump said the assassination attempt on him in July was “probably” due to criticism from his rivals who called him “a threat to democracy.”
He accused the Democrat of having “copied” the outgoing president’s economic program, but she reminded him that he is no longer competing with Joe Biden but with her.
The vice president did not avoid personal insults either. Although she put her finger on the sore spot, such as when she told him that people left her rallies early out of “boredom”, she did not succeed in getting him out of his mind.
He accused Trump of using race “to divide the American people” and of being an international laughingstock.
In his opinion, “dictators and autocrats are eager” for Trump to become president again because they can manipulate him “with flattery and favors.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin would “eat Trump alive” and would already be sitting in kyiv if the Republican were president,” he said.
The Republican refused to say whether or not he wanted Ukraine to win against Russia.
“She hates Israel. If she becomes president, I don’t think Israel will exist in two years,” the former president said. As expected, she denied it.
For decades, these debates allowed a candidate to distinguish himself from his rival, but they did not make a dent in the campaign.
Until last June, when President Joe Biden’s poor performance precipitated his downfall and led to him passing the baton to his vice president on July 21.
But many Americans (28 percent according to a New York Times/Siena College poll) have no idea what she is like or what she proposes. So she tried to convince them to trust her.
He proposed a “new path forward” to leave the Trump era behind.
Both need undecided voters, especially those in swing states, i.e. those who vote for one party or another depending on the candidates. This gives them enormous power in elections due to the indirect universal suffrage voting system.
© Agence France-Presse
