Debate Reaction

Kamala Harris delivers the most effective debate performance we have ever seen

No one has ever confronted Donald Trump the way Kamala Harris did last night. No one has ever beaten him at his own dominance game, or called him out for the fraud that he is, or exposed him so throughly and completely. No one.

Harris commanded the moment from the second she entered the room. She walked over to Trump and extended her hand, introduced herself as Kamala Harris—and he didn’t know what to do. That established the dynamic for the debate: Harris in control, Trump on defense.

It was obvious from the nonverbal cues the candidates sent. The best way to tell which candidate is winning a televised debate is to turn off the volume and watch their body language. Trump was hunched over, scowling, coiled. Harris stood tall, arms open, accessible, and looked at Trump with expressions that ranged from incredulity to pity.

He was weak. She was strong. And strength is his whole game.

Harris used her prosecutorial skills to expose Trump as a weak man masquerading as a strongman. On the 2020 election, she told him he was fired by 81 million people. She told him military and foreign leaders consider him a disgrace.

But the biggest trap she set for him is when she went after the crowds at his rallies. “You’ll notice that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” she said. “He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer.” And then the pivot to draw a contrast with her candidacy: “I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about, is you.”

Predictably, Trump couldn’t avoid the trap. He behaved exactly as you would expect, exhibiting the belligerence that turns off voters who are not already inclined to support him.

That belligerence was paired with incoherence. His answers were a menu of word salads interspersed with tangents, evasions, and lies. When pressed to give specifics—and in a pleasant surprise there were moments when David Muir and Linsey Davis pressed him for answers—he revealed that he had nothing (for instance, when asked how he would proceed after getting rid of Obamacare, the best he could do was to say, “I have concepts of a plan”).

And unlike the CNN debate last June, the moderators actually called out a couple of Trump’s most outrageous lies—like the crazy ideas that Democrats support abortion after birth and immigrants are eating pets—which only served to fuel Trump’s anger.

In contrast, Harris stayed on message and made the case for her candidacy. She spoke in detail about her plans and expressly contrasted them with Project 2025. She addressed the home audience directly with passion and compassion.

Harris accomplished everything she needed to do. She controlled the debate. And she invited the country to imagine her in the Oval Office.

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You may hear Trump supporters offer the excuse that he was poorly prepared. But the blame for what happened last night rests entirely with the candidate. No amount of preparation can keep him from being himself. What made this debate different is for the first time someone figured out how to expose who he is.

That may be the thing that endures as the campaign enters its final months. For the first time since becoming a candidate nine years ago, Donald Trump was humiliated in front of the nation. And for a narcissist and a racist to be exposed as a fraud by a woman of color may well be something he can never get past. Expect his behavior to become even more unhinged.

The evening closed with Harris receiving the coveted endorsement of Taylor Swift. For a campaign looking to boost Gen Z turnout, it was the perfect ending to a flawless night.

To be clear, the debate did not end the election. Debates never do. But last night gave the Harris campaign everything it could have wanted at a time when people are just tuning in to the contest. That small slice of the electorate that’s open to her candidacy but wants to know more saw a candidate in charge and ready for the office she seeks.

There was a president on that stage last night, and it wasn’t the person who used to hold the job.