Kamala Harris’s debate performance a ‘clear-cut win,’ says debate historian | Power & Politics

kamla Harris and Donald Trump met on stage for 90 minutes last night for their one and maybe only debate of the presidential campaign 57.5 million Americans tuned in across seven television networks and here are some of the highlights KLA Harris Let's Have a good debate Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people so let's be clear about that and clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that this is someone who has openly said he would terminate I'm quoting terminate the Constitution of the United States that he would weaponize the Department of Justice this is the one that weaponized not me she weaponized I probably took a bullet to their head because of the things that they say about me we have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails from mental institutions and insane asylums now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison in Springfield they're eating the door dogs the people that came in they're eating the cats they're eating they're eating the pets you will see during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter he will talk about windmills cause cancer and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom people don't go to her rallies there's no reason to go so she can't talk about that people don't leave my rallies we have the biggest rallies the most incredible rallies in the history of politics they sent her to negotiate peace before this war started 3 days later he went in and he started the war because everything they said was weak and stupid why don't you tell the 800,000 polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch they respect me they don't respect Biden how would you respect ECT him why for what reason it's important to remind the former president you're not running against Joe Biden you're running against me she has a plan to confiscate everybody's gun Tim Walls and I are both gun owners we're not taking anybody's guns away so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff she's going to do this she's going to do that she's going to do all these wonderful things why hasn't she done it she's been there for three and a half years Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body but her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine he also says execution after birth it's execution no longer abortion because the baby is born is okay there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of roie Wade as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law that's the kind of president we need right now someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first and they're destroying our country the worst president the worst vice president in the history of our country okay that's a lot but that's just a short taste of that high stakes debate now we're going to hear analysis from both sides of this race Democratic political strategist Antoine seite joins me now Antoine good to see you again uh thanks for joining us two days in a row happy post debate day well I was going to say happy post debate day for Democrats this time after the last debate when I talked to Democrats it was despair it was anxiety it was sadness how you feeling today well welcome to being a Democrat uh we have our highs we have our mids and we have our lows but but last night was a display of uh KLA Harris's best she showed the versatility of her as a candidate uh she showed her intellectual capacity but she also demonstrated to the country the contrast in this election and what the two choices are her ability to not only frame the election frame her opponent but also frame the future and and I think put a button on her record was very impressive when you compare that to the former president who could not articulate a policy agenda or a policy prescription for the ills and CHS of this country not not to mention he had he was forced to Pivot to his traditional right-wing toned down racial rhetoric because he could not articulate a policy agenda and personality politics is what has gotten him here but I think personality politics will be the thing that will dismiss him from the presidency I I want to touch on what you said there about framing her opponent because so a lot of the analysis going into this was she needed to offer some specifics you know the vice president needed to show that she could be president she seemed to go in there with the intention of eviscerating and disqualifying Donald Trump by baiting him into revealing his worst qualities as often as possible for as long as possible and it worked well I think she just exposed the vulnerabilities of Donald Trump and she exposed uh what we all know about him is that he is an accidental nominee there's no way anyone in the Republican party or any Trump supporter can say they support the former president because of policy most people cannot articulate what his policy agenda is if you ask him as asked last night what's his health care policy he does not have one he was asked several times on the debate stage why did you kill the immigration reform legislation bipartisan Etc he did not have an answer he calls drill baby drill big bold beautiful healthc care plan he indicates that as Poli so she exposed the vulnerabilities and the dangers of Donald Trump so I wouldn't call it baiting him I would call it exposing him right well he he he failed to keep the discipline I think people wanted him to keep on the Republican side of this but you know you say people can't possibly support him for his policies yet there are a lot of Americans out there who cite policy when they say they support Donald Trump they say the economy was better under him cost of living was better under him so I I I mean pundits media political strategists they all have their take on their they on this debate what do you think the impact is in the election how do you think voters are going to react to what they saw last night oh I think a lot by and large a lot of people are still getting to know Kell Harris and if last night was the only debate they had and that was going to be the driving force of how they show their support in this election then hands down she will win but we know that's not true because we've seen presidential Bates debates before when one candidate loses the debate But ultimately the election most people can pinpoint back to the 2016 election when there was no argument Hillary Clinton won the first debate but she did not end the election that's why right I think the high tech High touch strategy of a campaign and what happens after the debate is more is perhaps just as important as the debate thankfully Democrats raised somewhere north of $20 million last night it's going to help continue to expand and build the infrastructure communicate with voters but also I think Comm Harris continued to introduce herself to the American people whether it's rallies whether it's events whether it's on zooms however she shows up is going to be important because people are still getting to know her the cake is already baked about the former president she she certainly introduced herself in the debate as capable as confident you know as as as not intimidated by the former president but she also introduced herself to Donald Trump and went up to him and shook his hand as they were coming up to the podiums which was an interesting maneuver CU they never met each other before why do you think she did that what do you think the value of that move was because Donald Trump and his extremist cadres if you will or friends have been intentional about mispronouncing her name for the sake of galvanizing energizing a base and so she wanted to be certain that he knew her name but also knew that he she did not fear him a lot of what Trump does and a lot of the pathways he operate from are fear fraud and fakeness and so she wanted to be confident and make certain he knows that she's a Confident Woman on a very big stage ready to have the discussion in the differences between between the two candidates and so it was smart for her as a prosecutor and as a candidate to introduce herself to the prosecutor and the the policy Pretender she she was pressed though on on changes in her policies flipflops in her policiy she says my values haven't changed but her position on fracking assault BuyBacks those have changed she was challenged on how it was only what uh until 6 months before the election that her and President Biden issued executive order measures to deal with what's happening at the southern border what what do do you think those damaged kamla Harris how do you think she handled those when the moderators pressed her on that I think she handled it well because she told the truth and at the end of the day one of the first pieces of legislation that the Biden har Administration pushed was legislation to uh create a safe and Humane border but also giv them the resources to operate so that we can deal with this the legislative way and not executive order which some argue would have been caught up in court but because of the back and forth did not happen they finally were able to get it done by way of executive order and we've seen the results for consecutive months uh legal illegal border crossings are down in fact I think that the lowest they're lower than they were when the Trump presidency entered and so no one can argue with that and look it's okay to evolve on the issues think about where the country was on reproductive freedom and gay marriage at one point in time and think about where the country is now so that's not anything new to the American political experiment but what people can't are what people cannot get their arms around is when you do not have a position at all or when you're such a flip-flopper in real time like the former president has been on reproductive freedom and reproductive Justice I think that's when people are bothered by a politician in the way they condu themselves so so Antoine here we are this is the second presidential candidate debate of this campaign though with a different set of characters with KLA Harris replacing Joe Biden a lot of Republicans are complaining about the moderator saying they were too aggressive with former president Trump not aggressive enough with kamla Harris he says he won it was the best debate of his life kamla Harris says she wants a rematch she's happy to have a second debate at any time Donald Trump not so sure saying unless it goes to like Fox and and Shan Hannity or someone like that is the moderator do you think we're going to see another debate between these two candidates oh I don't know what we do know is she's prepared and ready to debate him again I think all the details of course have to be ironed out but she's willing to do to do that I don't think people should forget we're going to also have advice presidential debate hosted by CS um between now but I think every day is a debate because every time both of them step on any platform speaking directly to cameras or the American people one way or another I think that that a chance for people to hear the issues and hear the differences so it may not be a moderate debate who the hell knows but I'm the debate will take place over the next 50 some OD days and I think Comm Harris will continue to debate very well and win the day which means winning the moment ultimately hopefully that leads to winning the election Antoine cite a democratic political strategist uh much happier after this debate day than the last debate Day always good to talk to you man thanks for taking the time thank you okay and energize Democrat we're going to turn now to the Republican camp and see how they're feeling on the other side of this campaign Matt Terrell is the former Chief of Staff for Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign and the managing partner at Firehouse strategies Matt it's good to see you thanks for for joining us again hey great to be with you Donald Trump said this was my best debate ever and then he said especially since it was three-on-one taking a shot at the moderators how how do you think it went for the Republican nominee last night well certainly there are some missed opportunities by former president Trump there's no question about that but I'm not so sure that vice president Harris at least in my view accomplished what she needed to accomplish last night as well you know look what vice president Harris needed to do was win over voters particularly on key issues that are driving this election namely the economy if you look at the polling after the debate you know on the issue of the economy the top issue is facing voters right now for president Trump actually increased his lead on that issue in comparison to where his number was at on that issue uh po uh at the beginning of the debate so look the bottom line is that this debate mattered there's no question I honestly don't that this debate is going to shift the race you know we have only a few weeks left in the race but certainly I don't think this debate is going to really shift this race one way or the other we we saw some commentary from people like say Frank Lun for example does a lot of polling you know on on voting behavior and on messaging he said that Trump blew his chance to discuss his strongest issue inflation and instead Amplified his most polarizing on so 2020 election denial you agree with that assessment did did the is that the sort of thing the president former president did wrong last night well again I think there's some moments that were missed opportunities there's no question but at the same time I think those who are watching this debate and were uh supporters of Vice President Harris thought that she did quite well and and thought that she did what she needed to do those who are supporters of former president Trump looked at it and said this is just Trump being Trump and at the end of the day he's authentic to who he is either people like that or not or agree that or not but really this election is going to come down to 45,000 maybe 100,000 voters at the end of the day and what do they care about inflation border security the economy that's what their laser in on right now that's where their their mindset is right now and the question they have isn't around you know style over a debate it's about who has the capability to lead on those issu and who has a strong track record on those issues and many would argue that former president Trump in terms of in terms of the issues of inflation and the economy and border security has a better track record uh than the Biden Harris Administration so at the end of the day this comes out to the issues you know those who are watching this debate last night I think they were looking at these issues uh namely and that's what they're going to but but you know man you go back to when it was Joe Biden against Donald Trump right Joe Biden's age his mental Fitness his mental acuity these were big things that that that voters were concerned about we saw Donald Trump last night talking about you know hordes of immigrants stealing family pets for food and Springfield Ohio which you know the the the the town government in Springfield said there's no evidence of this he talked about the execution of babies he talked about a lot of things that are just way out there in the conspiracy world of the internet and not real things I mean how do you think that sliver of undecided voters in the key swing states are going to look at things like that because those are the clips that are generating all of the attention out of this well look former president Trump is not new to the political stage and he has a certain style and approach to debates and a certain style and approach to campaign rallies and campaign in general and so this would be one thing if he was new to the political process in terms of being new to the political stage he's not he's been on the stage for a number of years now voters either like him or they don't but look here's the deal the Democrat B they're going to turn out for vice president Harris he's not going to win over the Democrat base the GOP base they're going to turn out for former president Trump this is going to come down to those low propensity voters or those independent and undecided voters and I think they look at for president Trump and they say you know what I don't agree with every statement I don't agree with every social media post but on the issues of affordability namely on housing Healthcare food and fuel on the issue of border security he is the candidate that many voters I think will look at and say he's the person who can lead on this but at the end of the day it's up to former president Trump to win over those voters endorsements at this stage aren't going to matter it's up to the candidates to win over the voters so you you don't think this has a meaningful effect on his campaign the sort of erratic Behavior you kind of saw on the stage last night because I've never seen him in in debates be sort of on the defense of so much and so off message as as he was last night well we've seen moments in the past go go back to 2016 whereas the axis Hollywood tape and people were pointing of that as being the end of his campaign it wasn't you know go back to the impeachments in the court cases that have been taking place many you were arguing at the court cases we going to knock him out of the GOP Primary uh process if you will that didn't happen became the nominee back in 2016 became the president won that election we'll see how this all takes shape but again I go back to he is who he is either voters like that or not at the end of the day I think voters are less concerned about personalities or I should say less focused on personalities right now in style and I got to be honest I think they're laser focus on affordability the economy border security that's what's driving this election that's what this election will be decided on I to say he his ability to defy the laws of political gravity are truly remarkable you know in terms of what we've seen over the eight years or nine years now that that he has been in elected politics in the United States but but I wonder we saw uh right after the debate um I know there were a lot of celebrities like Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan at the Republican National uh convention we saw Taylor Swift We into this debate last night and I know celebrity indorsements have limited value but hundreds of thousands of people have gone through her web page to register to vote you said this election could be decid up by 40 50 100,000 when you see this these are new voters coming in and they're clearly motivated by her as a conduit they're probably going to be kamla Harris voters what do you think can that have any impact in this do you think Matt well I think many voters right now particular the Democrat side or are just motivated to energize because it's anybody but President Biden with all due respect to President Biden who was not exactly a candidate that was energizing his political base and other voters so look I think that's a part of this but there's no question these endorsements are going to happen they're going to take shape I think think at the end of the day endorsements are not going to make or break this election we've seen celebrity endorsements for decades in politics and I hate to be repetitive here but I got to be honest this going to be just a handful of Voters are going to decide this thing you know we saw in 2020 it was like 40,000 voters give or take 2016 roughly 80,000 voters that decide these races you know I think this is neck and neck right now I think this election is going to come down to the wire and to your point though you're going to see endorsements take shape here you know but it's going to be these issues at the side it affordability the economy border security that's the name of the game here so uh right after the debate last night K Harris said let's we're ready to do another one let's do it again uh Trump's campaign has said yeah we'll do this one on the 25th but he later said oh I'm not so sure we got to see I mean do you think we're going to see another debate or do you think this is the end of it and we just get JD Vance and Tim Walls coming up in October my this is probably the last one is what my gut tells me but who knows I mean look there could be maybe one or two more traditionally you have about three debates or so on different issues obviously uh my gut tells me this is probably the last one and then we'll have the vice presidential debate but time will tell on that yeah not a traditional campaign man I I wouldn't say and predicting what happens in American politics these days you know uh good luck with that but look uh thanks for joining us uh we appreciate it that's Republican strategist Matt Terrell thanks so much man so how did last night stack up against past US Presidential debates Alan Schroeder is the author of presidential debates risky business on the campaign Trail he's also a professor emeritus at North Eastern University School of Journalism and he joins us again today uh Professor I don't know if you got a new chapter out of that debate last nice to add on to your book I mean you you said this was uh Harris's chance uh to to do what Kennedy and Reagan did to show themselves as a plausible presidential candidate sure seems like she did that in contrast to Donald Trump last night what are your thoughts absolutely she did that she had that test that she had to pass and she passed it with flying colors you know it's unusual in debates to have a a real clear winner and a real clear loser generally it's a little to try to call those things but this one is you know about as black and white as it gets I have uh I have obviously not studied presidential debates to the degree to which you have I have watched a lot of them in my lifetime and a lot of debates here in Canada I have never seen one as lopsided as the one we saw last night she mopped the floor with Donald Trump it seemed to me vice president Harris did what are your thoughts yeah she sure did and you know I think it's a testament to the value of preparation you know Trump really did not prepare they kept talking about they were doing policy sessions with him well if they did that wasn't manifested in the debate whereas Harris worked you know very hard she spent several days doing nothing but debate prep including full-scale mock debates and it showed you know she she did not go in there just to have a good time she went in there with a a purpose a mission and she accomplished I know when we we chatted yesterday uh we kind of agreed it would not be as significant as as the Biden Trump debate which knocked Joe Biden out of the race and set the stage for what we saw last night but this feels like a pretty significant debate like two in a row that will be consequential but this one seemingly going the other way I mean how do you set this in in this campaign and compare it to the other elections you studied or over the decades well it's always difficult to draw a a a inclusion from a debate about how the election might go you know this is still a very 5050 polarized country and if you remember back in 2016 Hillary Clinton had three debates with Donald Trump she won all three of them by the exit polls or the the post debate polls and yet she did not win the election and and the other thing I think is you know there's a lot of time between now and election day and even though early voting starts here in a week or two in some states um there's time for people to forget what this debate was all about and what came down so I'm not sure they can the Harris campaign can assume that that good performance will translate into votes or certainly translate into a win at the uh at The Ballot Box I I appreciate your point that in the time that has left people can forget it's all you know people have kind of forgotten that someone took a shot at Donald Trump in Pennsylvania you know they they they've moved on because things mve but last night the former president talked about about migrants in Springfield Ohio eating cats and dogs he talked about States killing babies after they were born talked about sex changes for illegal aliens and prison cited Hungarian strongman Victor Orban as a character reference wouldn't say he wanted Ukraine to win the war and said he didn't talk to JD vents about a National Abortion van there's a lot of stuff there I mean have you ever seen sort of content wise anything like that in in the debates you studied um no I think this is a pretty C clear case of someone getting high on his own Supply you know he's on true social he's on Fox News he's on Newsmax but he doesn't really engage in the broader traditional mainstream media that much and uh so I think you know to him all of that made perfect sense because if you tune in those platforms that's what they're talking about but for the general audience I just don't see how he did himself any favors particularly with those undecided persuadable voters there there was that moment where she seemed to bait him when she looked at the camera and said I invite you to attend a Donald Trump rally because you will see people leaving out of exhaustion and boredom and she talked about the size of the rallies not being as big as he likes to say and that set him off and he seemed to be completely and utterly derailed from that point on I mean it was an effective tactical move by the Vice President it seems yes it sure was and I agree that that he never regained his footing after that um and you know the way she set that up was masterful she sort of Leaning into the camera I'm going to say something that you might not expect me to say and so you know watching at home I'm on the edge of of the sofa here just like what's she gonna do um but his reaction and I've seen a lot of of sort of meme versions of that today uh online was just devastating you could see that you know that she really hit the target there so the consensus certainly in punditry and and part A lot of the political operators here and that that is that the vice president won this debate but you know it wasn't a Flawless performance so when you look at kamla Harris um you know they tried to go after her on the border they tried to go after her on inflation on the cost of living that she's been there for three and a half years and and hasn't done some of the things she's now promising to do as the presidential candidate do do you think Trump was able to help himself in any way with his performance and harm vice president Harris by by pointing out these things that Republicans say are are her weaknesses not much although I think a more effective debater could have because you know these are some vulnerabilities for her and she wasn't always giving the crispest answers to to these kinds of questions but it takes a prepared debater to come up against her with the facts and the history and the knowledge of her record and Biden's record to be able to pull that off and you know by by not preparing by just showing up and saying whatever popped into his head Trump really lost a huge opportunity in front of an enormous audience when it was all over he went into what they call the spin room uh which is where the surrogates are and and they're doing interviews with local and Regional and National media you know making the case for why their candidate won and typically you don't see the presidential candidate go in there when they do it's often seen as a sign that they know they had a rough night Trump went in he went into the spin room himself last night while vice president Harris I went to a rally and issued a statement saying hey we're ready to have another debate if Donald Trump is ready to have another debate what do you make of those two reactions from the campaigns that Trump felt the need to go himself and she said let's do this again right um I was kind of surprised actually that she wants to do it again because I figured you know she might as well quit while she's ahead on that but I think it has to do with the calendar the fact that as we were talking about before a September debate gives people time to forget what happened there um I thought his going into the spin room was just a little bit on the bizarre side and it was not lost on the audience I think that he headed straight over to Sean Hannity from Fox News and went to his safe place and was really I think looking just for some reassurance more than trying to you know argue the case again it's interesting because you know as we talked yesterday other them is saying that you know vice president Harris needed to show the country she was presidential material I think she also went into there last night trying to completely disqualify Donald Trump by sort of this goting him in to reveal his age his his narcissism and his various policy feel she Drew all of his worst qualities out on that stage it seems yeah absolutely and furthermore she made the point that the country's tired of it yeah you know that there comes a point where we're just exhausted by someone like Donald Trump and it's a very good question do you really want that for another four years so I thought she she had that uh that plan in mind she executed it and she was able to you know succeed more than I ever even would have anticipated and I think that it was a surprise to a lot of Voters as well it was an interesting way I think professor as a final point for someone who is a member of the incumbent team in the White House to seize the mantle of Change by talking about Turn the Page and we're not going back to this let's move on I'm a new generation let's go in a New Direction and that that was a an an interesting strategic move by KLA Harris yeah and she still does have that novelty factor of not having been the nominee for all that long you know if this was a traditional campaign she would have been out there for the past two years and people would you know have probably arrived at a different conclusion about her than they do as they just get to to know her so I I think she she recognized that and she sees that moment and she really uh did very well in further introducing herself to the uh the electorate Alan schroer author of presidential debates Risky Business on the campaign Trail it's been good to talk to you this week thanks for joining us again today thank you