Last Night’s Debate (?) September 10, 2024

Robert Reich discusses the Trump – Harris debate or meeting last night (September 10, 2024). As expected, Kamala Harris was the adult in the room schooling Mr. Trump on how to be an adult. It still did not stop his outbursts and wandering off pursuing other avenues of attack.

It was good to see the moderators take control when Mr. Trump did wander off. Something that was missing with the Trump – Biden meeting.

The results of the meeting? Kamala Harris proved she is a legitimate presidential candidate as opposed to Mr. Trump. His performance will not discourage many people from voting for him.

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Friends,

Trump is best known for his unpredictability.

— Trump’s personal attacks on Harris rather than the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.

Trump acted as if he was backed into a corner as if was three on one, lashing out because he felt ganged-up on by Harris and the debate’s moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC. Trump already sought to cast doubt on ABC’s impartiality, calling the network “dishonest” and the “worst network in terms of fairness.”

He didn’t share some of his allies’ concerns about refraining from personal insults. When Trump recently was urged by podcaster Lex Fridman to talk about “a positive vision of the future versus criticizing the other side,” the former president seemed to disagree.

— Some of Harris’s aides had worried that the agreement between both sides to mute the microphones when a candidate is not speaking would hamper her ability to land an effective punch.

But she wasn’t shaken by the format or any wild accusations from Trump. Debating is one of her biggest strengths, a skill that has fueled her political ascent even amid notable public stumbles in interviews and shifting policy positions.

— Trump was in the unfamiliar territory of not being the main draw for viewers tuning in for Tuesday’s debate.

Trump is used to being the star. Now for the first time, he has to share the stage with another politician generating huge crowds. He wasn’t comfortable with that. He wanted to reclaim the spotlight and regain momentum. *

Her lines of attack tonight: Harris, age 59, casts herself as representing the future of American government and Trump, 78, as a relic of the past.

She has also sought to use ridicule to her advantage, calling Trump “an unserious man” and suggesting he and his allies are “out of their minds.” That is a contrast from the approach taken by Biden, who made more solemn and lofty arguments about how Trump posed a threat to American democracy.

Saying her rival wants ‘a national sales tax’

Poll after poll has shown that the economy remains the top issue for voters. That’s a problem for Harris as Americans express more trust in Trump to handle the economy.

In a line of attack she may repeat at the debate, Harris has accused Trump of wanting to lower taxes on billionaires and big corporations while raising them on the middle class. She has especially focused on his proposal to impose tariffs on all imported goods, which she has described as a “national sales tax” increase for workers.

“He doesn’t actually fight for the middle class,” Ms. Harris said.

Accusing Trump of being an extremist out for himself

Ms. Harris often tells her audiences, “If you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for.”

As a former prosecutor, she says, her answer is clear: She fights for the people. She characterized Trump as serving only himself.

“He tends to fight for himself, not for the American people,” she said.

One big question for Harris: How will she stand out from Biden?

Trump’s main potential lines of attack at the debate

Trump pointed to Harris’s role as vice president to directly link her to Biden policies, particularly on immigration and the economy. And he portrayed her as more liberal than her boss and too far to the left for moderate voters.

On immigration, calling Harris the ‘border czar’

Trump tried to pin the phrase “border czar” on Harris, seeking to hold her chiefly responsible for the presence in the country of millions of undocumented immigrants whom he broadly depicts as an invading force that is a drain on government resources.

Biden never gave Harris the title, although Biden asked her to address the root causes of migration from Latin America. But Mr. Trump has repeatedly used the phrase to try to.

Trump argued that an increase in violent crime has been fueled by migrants, pointing anecdotally to several high-profile crimes that the authorities say were committed by immigrants in the country illegally. Broader statistics do not bear out Trump’s assertion of a “migrant crime” wave.

Trump has argued that immigration is putting a strain on the economy. He has claimed that migrants are driving up housing costs and that they are taking jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans, groups whose support he is eager to chip away from Democrats.

Zeroing in on Harris’s liberal positions from the 2020 race

Trump pointed to a number of liberal policies Harris supported during the 2020 presidential campaign, when she tacked left during her failed primary bid in 2019. The next summer, she embraced progressive ideas on criminal justice as protests over policing spread across the nation.

Trump said Harris wants to “defund the police,” but she never called for abolishing police departments. She supported re-examining whether law enforcement budgets could be redirected to other social services that might help address the root causes of crime.

Trump brought up Harris’s past call for a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of extracting gas or oil from underground shale.

Trump attacked Harris’s cosponsoring of the Green New Deal, a resolution backing expansive clean-energy programs to address climate change. He referred to the resolution as the “Green New Scam.”

And he criticized Harris for saying in her 2020 campaign that she would eliminate private health insurance in favor of a single-payer health care program.

One big question for Trump: How personal might he get?

Mr. Trump has never met Ms. Harris in person, and they have never debated before. His attitude and demeanor toward her will be closely watched, as will his discipline as he tries to resist the Trumpian urge to do what he so often does.