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The more than 1,000 kilometers between Atlanta and Philadelphia are nothing compared to the difference between the two debates of the current presidential campaign. In terms of information, awarding victory to someone in a duel of this kind is usually delicate, because it implies treading into the dangerous territory of evaluation. In this campaign, however, there has been no doubt. In the first, Joe Biden was knocked out by Donald Trump. In the second, Kamala Harris put the former president on the ropes.
The story of the first debate is well known. Biden was a bit tone-deaf, had mental lapses and constant hesitations in Atlanta. Within 15 minutes, the president had already lost. Never before had an American presidential debate been so consequential. It forced Biden to withdraw from the re-election race and made way for Kamala Harris, who took over on a wave of overwhelming enthusiasm (and surprising, given the vice president’s unpopularity up to that point).
Tuesday’s duel is a different story. There is no doubt who won: there is unanimity in the flash polls and in the opinions of the experts. Kamala Harris cornered her rival, put him on the defensive, placed her messages and acted as a well-trained prosecutor who subjected her accusations to a rival who took all her bait. Attacking his ego became a magic formula to throw him off balance. However, its effect on voters is much more uncertain.
That Harris had won was pretty obvious, but confirmation came when, shortly after the debate, Trump made a surprise appearance at the spin room, the space next to the gigantic press room of the convention center near the debate stage where politicians from both parties try to place their messages and influence the perception of journalists.
After his victory in Atlanta, Trump disappeared and left the Democrats to fend for themselves. It was obvious that he had won and he didn’t need to convince anyone. In Philadelphia, however, the Secret Service suddenly began setting up a small security perimeter and, without warning, the former president appeared there with his unmistakable image and long red tie. The journalists immediately crowded in as close to the president as possible.
Watched from the front row, just a few feet away, the president seemed to say one thing with his words and another with his non-verbal language, or perhaps more accurately, with his underlying message. “I think it was the best debate of my life,” he repeated over and over again, while displaying home-made polls (merely votes on social media launched by his followers) to assure that he had won. For someone who does not even admit that he lost the 2020 election, the more he said he had won the debate, the less credible it seemed. Trump does not admit defeat. He gave the impression of wanting to save face.
The icing on the cake came when he claimed that ABC News moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir had been “very unfair.” In Atlanta, Trump congratulated the CNN moderators. Here, he protested that it had been a “three-on-one” debate. The winning team does not usually complain about the referee.
What the moderators did was to counter some of Trump’s more outlandish claims, such as when he said on abortion that there are Democratic states that allow the execution of newborns. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born,” Davis replied.
The media has reported more than 30 false statements from the former president, of which the moderators corrected only a small part. Perhaps the moment that will go down in the history of the American presidential debates is when Trump, echoing a hoax spread on social media, said in reference to immigrants: “Those who have come in are eating the dogs, they are eating the cats. They are eating the pets of the people who live there. This is what is happening in our country, and it is a disgrace.” On this occasion, the response was David Muir’s: “There have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or mistreated by individuals in the immigrant community,” he said, citing local authorities. Trump insisted on the idea twice, but the moderator did not back down and replied to him again both times.
The key to Harris’s victory, however, is that she baited Trump again and again with her pointed provocations, some aimed squarely at his ego. Harris was clearly prepared. At the immigration block, she managed to divert the president’s attention by wounding his pride. “I’m going to do something really unusual. I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies. Because it’s really something to see,” Harris said, looking directly into the camera, as if addressing the audience. “At his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He’ll talk about how windmills cause cancer. And what you’ll also notice is that people are starting to leave his rallies early out of tiredness and boredom. The only thing you won’t hear him talk about is you.” You won’t hear him talk about your needs, your dreams and your desires, and I will tell you that I believe you deserve a president who really puts you first, and I promise you that I will do that,” the vice president said.
Trump can’t stand being considered boring. “People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” he responded in an almost childish way with a new hyperbole.
But Trump was falling into all the traps Harris set for him. Like when she told him that foreign leaders considered him “a disgrace” and the former president used Viktor Orbán as an argument of authority. Or when, faced with his refusal to admit his defeat in 2020, she said that “81 million Americans had said goodbye to him,” referring to Biden voters, and left a new barb: “It is clear that he is having a hard time accepting it.” Harris deflected criticism of the withdrawal from Afghanistan by recalling that the former president received Taliban leaders at Camp David and the Republican got tangled up in justifying himself. The Democrat also stressed that Trump was a multimillionaire by inheritance and that he led several companies to bankruptcy and cited some of his former collaborators who disqualify him.
With these and other attacks, Trump spent almost the entire debate on the defensive, angry, raising his voice at times, without managing to counterattack effectively. It was very noticeable that Harris had thoroughly prepared the debate. She bordered on technical perfection in her execution, appearing calm and confident, clearing up the thorny issues – even at the cost of leaving questions unanswered -, placing the messages she wanted and sowing the debate with ambushes for her rival. Trump was guilty of overconfidence. That policy that he had called “unintelligent” or directly “silly” or “stupid” was passing him by.
What is certain is that the Philadelphia debate was more lively, entertaining and exciting than the one in Atlanta. The big question now is whether there will be a third debate. Harris is willing to do so, Trump, not so much.
