Trump vs. Harris: A Heated Exchange on America’s Future

By Jason Collins

The debate we’ve all been waiting for with bated breath has finally come and gone, delivering all the zingers from the presidential hopefuls we were expecting and more. With both candidates virtually tied in the polls, this was an opportunity for both of them to win over the undecided voters. 

Here’s what happened at the debate held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, in case you missed it. 

An Assertive Start 

Many people wondered how the two candidates would greet each other, considering that this was their first meeting. Harris started the evening off with an assertive handshake that spoke of confidence, simply saying, “Kamala Harris,” like one would at a business meeting. 

This confident and assertive handshake set the tone for the Democratic vice president in her first-ever presidential debate. Tuesday night would be the record-setting seventh presidential debate for Donald Trump. 

The debate started with one of the main issues on voters’ minds: the economy. Within the first minutes of the debate, Trump and Harris battled it out. Harris’s opening comments detailed her economic policies, like a new tax credit for small businesses. During this time, Harris leaned into her personal story as a middle-class kid (a dubious claim that Trump didn’t press) and told voters that Trump would “do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations,” and added,

(Trump) actually has no plan for you, because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you. 

Harris is energetically supported by CEOs and billionaires. Trump has a populist as a vice president. And yet, he let this outdated billionaires for Republicans charge go unaddressed. It might have been Trump’s seventh debate on the presidential stage but he continually looked unprepared and missed dozens of opportunities like this.

Economics is one of Trump’s strengths, and he focused on explaining that his tariffs would protect the American economy from unfair foreign competition. He said that Harris “doesn’t have a plan” and if she did it’s simplistic like the children’s book.

It’s like Run, Spot, Run.

Instead of continuing to force Harris to address the devastating inflation brought about by her and the Biden Administration, the two argued about tariffs putting the former President on the defensive.

Hook, Line, and Sinker 

Trump’s comments on his tariffs weren’t the only time he was on the defense. Most observers agree that Harris had one goal for the debate: to rattle Trump and she certainly did.  

While Harris appeared calm, confident, and smug, Trump was repeatedly triggered by his rival. The boiling point came when Harris suggested that Trump’s infamous rallies were boring and that attendees would leave out of boredom and exhaustion. In response, Trump told her “People don’t leave my rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” A cringe moment even for the most partisan Republicans. Trump came off as more concerned about his vanity than about doing things that would help Americans. 

Harris also went after Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol. Trump told her, “(I) had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech.” Trump again missed an easy opportunity. He could have said I’m not here to talk about the past and pivoted to attack Harris. Instead, he tried to relitigate this and another 50-year-old case that only the most tuned-in political observers knew about. 

Both candidates took the opportunity to accuse each other of weaponizing the Justice Department, something which Trump has been saying since the start of his legal woes, and now Harris has jumped on the bandwagon. Harris claimed,

Understand this is someone who has openly said he would terminate, I’m quoting, terminate the Constitution.

Both claimed that their opponent was a threat to democracy, a phrase that has become standard, some typical campaign clashing in American politics.   

Migrants are Eating Dogs 

Perhaps in one of the wilder moments of the debate, Trump turned to a recent story that even had the moderators intervening. ABC came off as one of the big losers in this debate running an extremely partisan event. Both moderators fact-checked Trump while allowing Harris to glide along. Even worse, the moderators would frame questions for Harris that were impossible to fumble. For example, in the January 6th questions it amounted to Trump was an insurrection on January 6th, Kamala, do you agree?

Shortly after Harris had insulted Trump’s rallies, ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis tried to steer the debate back to immigration, a topic that Trump has championed. This took a strange turn when Harris criticized him for a scrapped immigration bill. He told her that migrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. Trump claimed,

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. 

This allegation has been sourced to a third-hand account circulating on social media. Moderator Muir pushed back on Trump’s claim and told him, “You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” Calling the city manager isn’t exactly investigative reporting and ABC has no idea if this story is true or not. Muir’s interference in the debate though was obvious and it may have inadvertently helped Trump cover up his lackluster performance. Oftentimes it looked like it was 3 and against 1 on the stage. Americans usually demand fairness. The optics of the debate were not fair. 

Meanwhile, Harris just laughed, saying, “Talk about extreme.” Perhaps referring to Trump making such wild claims rather than the topic itself. 

Fierce Abortion Debate 

The two candidates fiercely debated their take on abortion policies, a topic that Harris and the Democrats have always fought for. Muir asked Trump why voters should trust him, and Trump responded by defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He argued that this result was something that both Republicans and Democrats wanted, which is false considering that one of the key topics that Democrats are fighting for is a constitutional right to abortion. Harris expressed her outrage at this, saying, “This is what people wanted? People being denied care in an emergency room because healthcare providers are being afraid of being hauled off to jail?” Moderator Linsey Davis again intervened for Harris and despite Trump’s strong, moderate, safe legal, and rare position on abortion, he was unable to win the issue Tuesday.

Clash on Global Flashpoints 

It was not just abortion rights that the candidates clashed over but also global flashpoints like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. 

Both candidates were asked for their peace plans for ending the wars, and both failed to deliver a thought-out plan. If this was the topic that was going to help undecided voters make up their minds on who to vote for, then both missed the opportunity. Harris revealed her two-state solution, which acknowledges Israel’s right to defend herself but pushes for a ceasefire deal and return of hostages. How would this be achieved, no details were provided. 

Trump’s plan? He offered even fewer details and instead chose to make a jab at Harris, saying,

She hates Israel

and chided Harris for not meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Capitol Hill.  

During her chance to explain how to end the war in Ukraine, Harris instead took to insulting Trump, saying, “It is well-known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again,” and added, “because it is so clear they can manipulate you with flatter and favors.” Had the moderators applied the same interventionism to Harris as they did Trump they might have inserted here that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he prefers Harris win the election.

Harris also believes that Trump will give Ukraine’s land to Russia to end the war. Ukraine is going to have to cede territory to Russia to end the war or it will go on and on. Harris essentially laid out a proclamation of forever war and yet, Trump was unable to spit out those two simple words. She wants forever war. That’s all he had to say. But, he didn’t. 

So, Who Won The Debate? 

It is clear that Trump, who is normally on the attack at debates, was pushed to the defense by Harris, who was out to rile up her rival. As for who won, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that Harris performed better than Trump at the debate. Most people feel Harris was the clear winner. Did their performance change the minds of voters? The poll showed that only 4% of registered voters changed their minds after the debate. 

Will there be a second debate? In less than an hour, the Harris campaign sent out an email saying, “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” Trump has accepted the challenge if the debate is held on FOX or NBC. A second debate could be attractive for both sides; Trump would have a second chance to pin Harris down on issues she repeatedly dodged or pivoted away from while Harris, if she defeats Trump in another debate, could pull off enough voters to clinch what is a tight election.