In the wake of Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on ABC, conservative pundits will (rightly) complain about the openly biased moderators, while liberal pundits will be thrilled that Harris repeated all the scripted talking points handed to her by the Democrat Party elites.
But as the media’s stable of talking heads endlessly speculates on who “won” the debate, the real story should be what the American people took away from the encounter. While Trump delivered haymakers exposing the Biden-Harris record of failure, Harris’s attempts to hit back at Trump often sounded preachy and more like a lecture than an actual argument. Harris repeatedly accused Trump of making “nasty, personal attacks,” but in the end, it was Harris who frequently resorted to this tactic when she found herself without any solid ground to stand on in defending her tenure as vice president.
Ultimately, this debate – as is the case with all presidential debates – was not really a debate at all, but rather an audition for who appears more ready to be president.
Partisans on both sides will undoubtedly wish that their candidate said this or that, piling up talking points from overpaid consultants. Everyday Americans, however, will judge the gestalt of the candidates, or the totality of how each presented himself or herself on camera.
The substance of the debate itself in some respects takes a back seat to how each candidate talks about the issues. Voters in most cases by now know the various claims and talking points of each campaign, and so they are watching to see who comes across as most capable of doing the job of president.
For this reason, while the corporate media will heap praise on Harris, viewers in suburbs and small towns throughout the country likely have a far different impression of her performance.
For example, as Fox News observed, social media users were quick to drag Harris for her exaggerated facial expressions, as she was seen constantly smirking and “was captured on camera dramatically rolling her eyes, furrowing her brow or squinting at her opponent while he spoke.” As several high-profile conservative accounts noted, Harris’s expressions appeared just as rehearsed as her lines – something which will be of no concern to analysts on CNN and MSNBC, but which smacks of inauthenticity to most viewers.
Moreover, Harris’s bizarre facial expressions betrayed a deep anxiety that will not sit well with voters. If this is how Harris reacts when her political opponent says something she doesn’t like, how can Americans trust her to keep her poise when she is staring across the table at Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping? Her entire aura was one of a teenager who believes making an incredulous face is a substitute for a counterargument.
As a result, no matter the substance of what Harris was saying, her physical demeanor throughout the debate came across as childish, immature, and ultimately unbecoming of the most powerful elected office in the world.
Making matters worse for the vice president, the way she responded to Trump and to the moderators’ questions was likely also a big turn-off for voters.
Along with conjuring up obviously manufactured emotion on issues Democrats love to fearmonger on like abortion and healthcare, Harris often became downright blabby, spending minutes lecturing Trump on how supposedly terrible and horrible he is. At several points during the debate, like a bitter ex-girlfriend who never forgets anything, Harris veered far off course from the issues at hand in this election to revive tired (and disproven) left-wing attack lines on Trump’s business record from decades ago. Her scolding at times teetered on the brink of being downright creepy as she obsessed over imagined injustices perpetrated by the former president.
Trump, meanwhile, presented precisely the opposite image. The Trump who came through the camera on Tuesday night was a serious, strong, determined leader ready to finish the work that he started eight years ago.
While Harris attempted to steer the conversation away from the border and the economy – consistently the top two most important issues to voters – Trump hammered inflation and illegal immigration over and over. When Harris claimed she had a “plan” for the various problems facing the country, Trump smartly pointed out that she has been in office for three and a half years and hasn’t done anything. Every time Harris lied about Trump’s record, the former president responded with an assertiveness that gives voters confidence in his ability to guide the country out of the ditch that Biden and Harris have driven it into.
As Trump took control of the debate, the ABC moderators stepped in to put their thumb on the scale for Harris, following up virtually all of Trump’s statements with bogus “fact checks” while allowing Harris to lie with impunity. But even this may have backfired on the Harris campaign. Trump proved himself capable of taking on both Harris and the moderators, while Harris looked weak by comparison.
In the end, Harris may have proven to be precisely what Democrat strategist James Carville warned about back in March – “too many preachy females dominating the culture of the Democratic Party.” Americans want a leader, not a lecturer-in-chief. On that front, Trump came out clearly ahead.
B.C. Brutus is the pen name of a writer with previous experience in the legislative and executive branches.
