Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met for the first time last night on the debate stage in what became a sparring match on policy. The moderators started the night with questions on the economy. Scott Jennings, a longtime adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), thought Trump won the first 15 minutes by speaking on the economy and inflation but that his winning streak ran out after that.
Harris seemed to get under Trump’s skin during the immigration question, and he wasn’t able to course-correct for the rest of the debate. He was “agitated,” University of New Hampshire professor James Farrell told the Washington Examiner’s Haisten Willis, while Harris remained, for the most part, calm.
However, not all viewers were impressed with Harris’s performance. Kirstin Kiledal, professor of rhetoric at Hillsdale College, told Haisten she gave her a grade of “fail” against Trump’s grade of “pass.”
“‘I believe’ and ‘I have a plan’ and ‘I know,’ however many times you repeat them, do not equal ‘I have a dream,’” Kiledal said. “That is the primary problem. She tells us that she has a plan and that leaders must have a vision, but the only vision here is MAGA. It is inseparable from the Trump campaign.”
Harris reiterated her claim of having a plan many times throughout the night despite only publishing a policy section on her website this week. She repeated her idea to give new small businesses a $50,000 tax deduction rather than the current $5,000 one, as well as her goal to increase the child tax credit to $6,000.
On the border, however, she evaded the question of why the Biden administration waited until six months before the election to cap the number of people allowed in, a policy that has successfully decreased the number of people crossing the border.
“Then, the immigration question happened,” Jennings told Haisten. “She evaded responsibility for any of it and pivoted to taunting him on his rallies. And [after that, she was] largely … in control of the debate. He had a few moments, and she has lied terribly about a number of things, but I’d say he won the first 15 minutes, and the rest, she’s been dictating the flow of the debate.”
Click here to read more reactions to the debate.
On abortion
As Harris said last night, Trump is no longer running against President Joe Biden, and on the abortion question, it showed. Whereas Biden and Harris are largely aligned when it comes to abortion, Harris was able to deliver the Democrats’ argument in a passionate and genuine way that Biden never was. Trump largely looked straight ahead, unflinching, while Harris told anecdotes about women miscarrying in their car because of the difficulty of receiving treatment following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and subsequent changes to abortion access.
Trump was asked about his own stance on this issue quite forcibly by the moderators. The former president has said he is in favor of the issue being decided by the states but was unclear about whether he would sign a national abortion ban. When reminded that his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), said he would, Trump responded, “I didn’t discuss it with J.D.”
Click here to read more takeaways from the evening.
Moderator fact-checking or bias?
Following the debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis faced swift backlash over their fact-checking of Trump. Frank Luntz, the GOP pollster, wrote on X that Muir “arguing with Trump will fuel the narrative that these moderators are biased against him.”
Several Trump surrogates echoed those comments in the spin room following the debate. “I thought that they definitely leaned to the left side of American politics,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Mabinty Quarshie. “But listen, as a Republican, we’re accustomed to dealing with moderators who don’t play it straight down the middle and keep Democrat members on task.”
During the debate, the ABC News anchors fact-checked Trump on his claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
“Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said in a moment that went viral.
“You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there,” Muir responded. “He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being used by individuals within the immigrant community.”
A similar situation occurred after Trump’s answer on abortion when he claimed it was legal to “execute” a baby after it was born under some abortion laws.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis said bluntly before turning her attention to Harris.
Harris did not receive the same “fact-checking” as Trump did.
Click here for more about Harris not being held accountable.
What else you missed
Biggest zingers from first Trump-Harris presidential debate
Harris brings debate fight to Trump in a way Biden could not
Taylor Swift endorses Harris with ‘childless cat lady’ swipe
Presidential debate: Fact-checking Harris’s statements on fracking
In nondebate news
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Kelly Ayotte and Joyce Craig head to competitive race for New Hampshire governor
Four takeaways from hearing with migrant crime victims
To know today
Biden and Harris will start the day in New York City for a 9/11 commemoration ceremony at ground zero. They will then head to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating Flight 93. Finally, they will head back to Washington, D.C., for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon.
The Senate has an 11 a.m. meeting to consider judicial nominees.