Philadelphia: Ahead of the high-octane presidential debate between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump, the battle for the White House appeared to be tilted in the latter's favour. However, the fiery debate between the two candidates clearly resulted in her favour as she managed to get under Trump's skin on a number of issues.
The candidates clashed over issues such as immigration, foreign policy and healthcare, but the debate was light on specific policy details. Harris went on the offensive, succeeding in putting the focus on Trump. The former President initially avoided insults during the early moments but became increasingly agitated under Harris' offensive, prompting personal remarks. While scientific polling will take a few days to show if the race shifted, both campaigns, predictably, claimed victory.
Harris at one point brought up Trump's campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early "out of exhaustion and boredom." This appeared to have infuriated Trump, who pivoted to an unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are "eating the pets" of residents. "Talk about extreme," Harris said, laughing.
Who won the presidential debate?
According to BBC, considering which candidate took the best advantage of issues where they are strong with voters and defended areas of weakness, Kamala Harris clearly had the advantage over Donald Trump. Observers from the UK-based The Independent said Trump's rambling answers, repeated falsehoods and consistent interruption hurt him on debate night. However, there seems to be no clear winner in the contest.
“Make no mistake about it, Trump had a bad night,” Brit Hume said on Fox News. "We heard so many of the old grievances that we long thought that Trump had learned were not winners, politically." Analysts also opined that Trump fell for Harris' bait on criminal trials, the size of his rallies and on issues like abortion, foreign policy and more.
Most of the US media leaned towards Harris in the debate. Politico declared the Democratic Vice President as the winner - and it wasn't close. "It gave Democrats the role reversal they had hoped for after their switch at the top of the ticket,'' it wrote. According to a CNN poll, 63 per cent of debate watchers said Harris put in a better performance while 37 per cent said the same of Trump.
Harris' remark about the size of Trump's rallies was a turning point in the debate, which sent him on a rant against the Biden administration's political action against him. “People don’t leave my rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics," he said. Another big moment was when Harris walked across the room and reached out for a handshake, the first handshake in a presidential debate since 2016.
Reactions to presidential debate
While many praised Kamala Harris' performance, some of Trump's supporters stood by his performance and lashed out at ABC News for providing a biased platform for the debate. Trump himself said he did well during the debate. "I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!" he said.
Marc Short, former Chief of Staff to ex-VP Mike Pence, said, "Trump missed an opportunity to stay focused prosecuting the case against Biden-Harris on the economy and border and instead took her bait and chased down rabbit holes on election denialism and immigrants eating our pets."
"While Harris was able to get under Trump's skin with her well-prepared attacks, it's still not clear that she overwhelmingly convinced these voters to finally make up their minds from this exchange. The question now is how much she actually moved the needle. However, Trump didn't do himself any favours by agreeing to do this debate," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist.
Latino leaders applauded Harris' performance during the debate with her campaign applauding what she said and criticising comments made by Trump toward Latino and immigrant communities. On the other hand, Florida Senator Marco Rubio joined the chorus of Trump supporters criticizing ABC News’ debate moderators, claiming they did not ask enough questions from Harris.
Investors said Harris put in a slightly stronger performance. Online prediction market PredictIt's 2024 presidential general election market showed Harris' odds at improving to 56% from 52% immediately before the debate, while Trump's odds slipped to 48% from 51%.
(with inputs from agencies)
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