The closing lines of a debate tell you all you need to know about how it went. And in last night’s Trump-Harris debate, it was a slam dunk. Donald Trump wilted in Kamala Harris’s presence.
Perhaps he decided to trash America in his last remarks of the night when he called our country a “failing nation in serious decline” – in what will likely be his last remarks to such a large audience of Americans. Or perhaps it was earlier in the debate when flustered, he claimed that illegal immigrants were “eating our pets.” (Fact check: they’re not!) The contrast with Harris couldn’t have been clearer.
Unlike Trump, she spoke about the core issues animating the American voter at the end of the debate. She talked about lowering inflation. She spoke about creating an economy that provides opportunity. She spoke about bringing Americans together. She was clearly feeling the moment and acting like the president.
Donald Trump was acting like an angry, bewildered man.
What was also intriguing about this debate was the body language. From the start, Harris respected her opponent. She literally walked over to Trump’s side of the room to shake his hand. And at the end of the debate, Trump walked off the stage to his side without even looking at her. And throughout the night, Trump held onto a scowl and scrunched his eyebrows, looking ahead in anger.
Harris, when perturbed, rested her chin on her hand and just stared at Trump. It was the look of a teacher who just couldn’t believe how badly the students in her class behaved.
And she did school him.
Policy focus and strong appeal to Jewish voters
There are also certain moments in debates when the fireworks die down, and the policy substance comes to the fore. And in many instances, Trump made a push into the immigration issue, attempting to tie Harris to large numbers of undocumented arrivals here in the US. But when asked about how he would implement his plans to deport millions of these people, he demurred and swayed, concocting a word salad answer for the ages by attacking Harris with a line that may never have been uttered before: “She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”
Huh? For her part, Harris focused on narrow policy initiatives, like tax breaks for small businesses and expanding the Affordable Care Act, essentially banking on looking solid by having concrete proposals to describe. It worked because Trump didn’t attack them on the merits and instead pivoted to arguing that Harris wants to ban fracking (fact check: false), even though the United States is now the world’s number one producer of fossil fuels. Harris (and Biden) clearly do not do anything significant to weaken America’s energy prowess. Trump’s attacks missed their mark.
There were even some powerful nuggets in this debate for American Jews to get excited about. And the American Jewish vote matters in this very tight election.
In key swing states – particularly the blue wall states of the industrial Midwest - Jews play a critical electoral role. In Michigan, there are roughly 90,000 Jews, a state that Trump won by a little over 10,000 votes in 2016. In Pennsylvania, there are roughly 300,000 Jews; this is a state that Joe Biden won in 2020 by a little more than 80,000 votes. And in Wisconsin, there are roughly 33,000 Jews, a state that Biden won in 2020 by a little over 20,000 votes.
This means that every Jewish vote counts. That’s why Harris was very astute to bring up the 2017 Charlottesville hate rally that killed one and was saturated with the stench of Antisemitism. Amongst American Jews, 91% are highly concerned about antisemitism, meaning that this episode resonates amongst the Jewish electorate. Harris tied Trump to it and reminded voters that he claimed there were “very fine people on both sides.” He didn’t rebut it, leaving Jewish voters with the clear impression that he tolerates white supremacists.
Plus, on the threshold issue of Israel, an issue that American Jews typically use to judge a candidate’s qualifications but not one that determines their vote, Harris passed the test with flying colors. She spoke strongly about her backing of Israel’s immediate security against Hamas and also about her long-term vision for security for Israel through peace with the Palestinians.
Trump blustered in response, bewilderingly saying that she “hates Israel,” falsely claiming that she didn’t meet with PM Netanyahu when he recently came to Washington (fact check: she did), and then bizarrely claiming an unprovable point, which is that Hamas would never have attacked Israel if he had been president. Tell that last one to all the Israelis living under Hamas rocket fire since 2007. In American politics, there really is nothing like a debate amongst candidates to cut through all the noise, television ads, moneyed operatives, and spinmeisters. A debate lets the voters see the candidates in the flesh, raw and honest. They’re unscripted and without teleprompters. They show the American people who the candidates really are.
And that’s why Kamala Harris won this debate by a mile.
The writer is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and a Democratic Strategist. He also was the Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress and a Congressional Candidate.
https://x.com/JoelMartinRubin