After watching the ABC News presidential debate where former President Donald Trump argued with two moderators while Vice President Kamala Harris stood next to him on stage, it seems nothing that happened on Tuesday night will change the course of the race.
If you missed it, the full Trump-Harris debate video is available here.
While Trump missed the knockout needed to finish Harris off in terms of destroying her chance at an Electoral College victory, he managed to stay afloat and hammer her on the economy, the top issue for most voters. His overall argument was effective by tying Harris to the fact that she’s the sitting Vice President. If she wants to help lower costs and improve the economy, what’s stopping her? The hubris of pretending that once given the reigns of the White House, Harris will suddenly become an agent of change for policies she’s never supported in her entire career is laughable and insulting.
At the end of the night, Democrats were elated that Harris managed to avoid word salads land mines of her own making and Trump was kept largely on defense for a good portion of the night. Harris supporters are kidding themselves, however, if they think she managed to transcend her flaws in 90 minutes while being carried by friendly moderators dragging her along as best they could.
Then, there’s this. A pre-debate CNN poll asked voters which candidate they trusted more on the economy. Trump was ahead on that question beforehand and came out improving his position afterward:
BREAKING: A new CNN poll shows that Kamala Harris has LOST support of voters on who they trust to handle the economy, and Trump has gained
Pre-Debate
🔴Trump: 53% 🔵Kamala: 37%Post Debate
🔴Trump: 55% 🔵Kamala: 35%THEY ARE PANICKING pic.twitter.com/oIoQlcuJze
— George (@BehizyTweets) September 11, 2024
In other words, if Harris’ mission was to level the playing field by trying to sound competent with a plan to improve the economy, she failed. She mentioned things like larger child tax credits but more government spending isn’t the solution to rampant inflation. Offering cash for new parents to buy car seats doesn’t help put gas in the tank, lower their homeowner’s insurance, or help them find an affordable rental property.
The focus group videos where voters get to offer reactions to what they just saw were not kind to Harris on several fronts. The theme of criticism circles around her lack of detail and close relation to Joe Biden’s failures.
For example, a CBS News focus group from Pennsylvania explained that they heard more facts from Trump while Harris sounded like Joe Biden on repeat:
The gentleman who spoke last said it best, the “moderate stance” of Kamala Harris is simply a facade that voters have seen before. It was Joe Biden who, in 2020, ran as some kind of uniter and then spent his entire term disparaging anyone who disagreed with his view of the world as haters of democracy.
A CNN panel mirrored the CBS panel. For most voters, they felt like the economy was working better under the Trump administration and Harris offered nothing to challenge or change that perception on Tuesday night:
That fact that neither side can claim a knockout essentially leaves the race as the status quo. Americans still know little to nothing about where Harris stands on the issues except for her extremely leftist positions which she suddenly disavows. As she said Tuesday night, her values haven’t changed, which is a sly way of saying she is lying to your face about what she believes now to get elected.
As for the moderators? Where to begin? It was fully understood going in that there would be no fairness toward Trump. In many instances, both moderators took the liberty to “fact check” the former president and chose not to “fact check” Harris a single time. Furthermore, their fact-checks were frequently wrong (see here, or here, or here, or here) or consisted of their personal opinion offered as fact. A disgrace and embarrassment but, hey, that’s ABC News which is part of the left-wing Disney media conglomerate.
Here’s Megyn Kelly to bat cleanup going scorched earth on the embarrassment of ABC for putting on this one-sided display of partisanship disguised as a debate.
Warning: Some language!
Megyn Kelly's rant about the debate is spot on. She speaks for many of us.
"I'm disgusted." pic.twitter.com/FpYEj84uGI— Ellie A (@EllieGAnders) September 11, 2024
As one commenter asked, will David Muir and Linsey Davis have to appear on the next FEC filing for Harris for their in-kind campaign donation?
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