The First Harris–Trump Debate: A Defeated, Glum Old Man vs. A Confident, Knowledgeable Younger Woman 

 By David Starr

 

The accusations were thrown back and forth in the September 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. When the dust cleared, it was Harris who was victorious.

 

There was a major contrast between the two debaters, Trump sounding unstable and pathologically lying, while Harris was stable and effectively throwing zingers at Trump. Harris consistently baited Trump and he fell for it. 

 

In regards to answering questions from CNN’s moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, both debaters sniped at each other, producing a fiery debate. 

 

How many claims by Harris and Trump were true or false? PBS published a fact check from Politifact which broke down the claims. 

 

Trump made a bizarre claim that Haitian immigrants were eating the neighbors’ dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. Trump put it this way: “…they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” 

 

Politifact gave its harshest answer, which is known as, “Pants on Fire!” A blatant lie that went around right-wing circles. 

 

Trump made another bizarre claim, saying,” But the governor before, he said, ‘The baby will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby.’” 

 

This was false. Trump was referring to former Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam who said he would never sanction the executions of newborns. 

 

Regarding abortion, Trump claimed that, “Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted [abortion] to be brought back to the states where the people could vote.”

 

False. Many people, such as legal scholars and reproductive rights activists, support the Roe vs. Wade federal law. The Supreme Court’s repealing of it in 2022 caused many demonstrations against the ruling. Bringing reproductive choice back to the states would probably result in further discrimination of women who are in red states.

 

Another lie expressed by Trump was the claim that, “Millions and millions of people are pouring into our country monthly. Where it’s, I believe 21 million people.”

 

False. There have been millions, but not that many as Trump asserts. Border officials count the number at about 11.6 million. Trump’s count is off by about 11 million.

 

Kamala Harris also made misleading claims during the debate, but not as much as Trump. The latter was consistent.

 

Harris claimed, “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.”

 

False. In April 2020 the unemployment rate was 14.8%, the pandemic being a major factor. Although Trump was in office then, he didn’t leave the Biden administration the worst unemployment rate. In December 2020, the unemployment rate decreased to 6.4%.

 

Harris also claimed, “The Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit – one of the highest we’ve ever seen in the history of America.”

 

Mostly false. In 2020, the trade deficit under Trump was about $654 billion. While that’s larger than most post-World War II presidents, it was in the final four years under the George W. Bush Jr. regime that the trade deficit was larger than Trump’s.

 

To reiterate, Trump told way more lies than Harris.

 

The Harris-Trump debate was not ignored by many, with 67.1 million people watching, according to The Guardian’s Helen Sullivan. Although the debate was run by ABC, 17 different networks televised it. 

 

In a CNN post-debate poll, debate watchers showed that Harris won the debate, 63% to 37%. “Prior to the debate,” Sullivan writes, “those voters were split 50-50 on who would win.” A CNN poll of Harris-supported viewers showed that 96% of them thought Harris did the better job. There were 69% of Trump-supported viewers who thought Trump won.

 

Will there be a second debate? Harris is willing to have one. But Trump said he’s not going to participate in another. Or will he? Trump is as unpredictable as the wind. Previous to the first debate, Trump flipped-flopped on whether he was going or not going to debate Harris. Undoubtedly, Trump doesn’t want to be defeated again and so he may show that he’s again too afraid to debate Harris.

 

The Israel-Palestine war is of course a controversial issue. In the debate, Harris was asked the following from an ABC monitor, quoted by Norman Solomon in  CounterPunch: In Gaza, “now an estimated 40,000 Palestinians are dead. Nearly 100 hostages remain….President Biden has not been able to break through the stalemate. How would you do it?”

 

Harris mainly answered using the Biden script: “Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must when, end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out.”

 

Disgusted, Solomon writes, “End immediately? Anyone who isn’t in fantasyland knows that the only way to soon end the slaughter of Palestinian civilians would be for the U.S. government – the overwhelmingly biggest supplier of Israel’s armaments – to stop sending weapons to Israel.” 

 

Solomon also writes that Harris may have a better chance of winning the presidency if the weapons shipments stopped. “…the Institute for Middle East Understanding pointed out that the need to halt the weapons is not only moral and legal – it’s also smart politics. Polls are clear that most Americans want to stop arming Israel. In swing states, polling has found that a large number of voters say they’d be more likely to cast a ballot for Harris if she would support a halt.”

 

Solomon concludes: “[What is] left unsaid from the debate stage, dodged in the U.S. mass media and evaded from the podiums of power in Washington – indict not only the Israeli government but also the U.S. government as an accomplice to mass murder that has escalated into genocide.”

 

If Harris becomes president, (which is likely), it remains to be seen if she would take a tougher stand against Israeli fascism. As for Trump, he’s all for Israel’s attempted genocide, wanting the Israeli military to go even further. But then, Trump is also a fascist and a criminal.