How Harris Roped a Dope
By: David Frum (The Atlantic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
She stayed human when Trump went feral.
By David FrumRobert F. Bukaty / APSeptember 10, 2024, 11:25 PM ET ShareSave
Vice President Kamala Harris walked onto the ABC News debate stage with a mission: trigger a Trump meltdown.
She succeeded.
Former President Donald Trump had a mission too: control yourself.
He failed.
Trump lost his cool over and over. Goaded by predictable provocations, he succumbed again and again.
Trump was pushed into broken-sentence monologues—and even an all-out attack on the 2020 election outcome. He repeated crazy stories about immigrants eating cats and dogs, and was backwards-looking, personal, emotional, defensive, and frequently incomprehensible.
Harris hit pain point after pain point: Trump's bankruptcies, the disdain of generals who had served with him, the boredom and early exits of crowds at his shrinking rallies. Every hit was followed by an ouch. Trump's counterpunches flailed and missed. Harris met them with smiling mockery and cool amusement. The debate was often a battle of eyelids: Harris's opened wide, Trump's squinting and tightening.
Harris's debate prep seemed to have concentrated on psychology as much as on policy. She drove Trump and trapped him and baited him—and it worked every time.
Trump exited the stage leaving uncertain voters still uncertain about whether or not he'd sign a national abortion ban. He left them certain that he did not want Ukraine to win its war of self-defense. He accused Harris of hating Israel but then never bothered to say any words of his own in support of the Jewish state's war of self-defense against Hamas terrorism. In his confusion and reactiveness, he seemed to have forgotten any debate strategy he might have had.
Something every woman watching the debate probably noticed: Trump could not bring himself to say the name of the serving vice president, his opponent for the presidency. For him, Harris was just a pronoun: a nameless, identity-less "she," "her," "you." It's said that narcissists cope with ego injury by refusing to acknowledge the existence of the person who inflicted the hurt. If so, that might explain Trump's behavior. Harris bruised his feelings, and Trump reacted by shutting his eyes and pretending that Harris had no existence of her own independent of President Joe Biden, whose name Trump was somehow able to speak.
Hemmed, harried, and humiliated, Trump lost his footing and his grip. He never got around to making an affirmative case for himself. If any viewer was nostalgic for the early Trump economy before its collapse in his final year in office, that viewer must have been disappointed. If a viewer wanted a conservative policy message, any conservative policy message, that viewer must have been disappointed. When asked whether he had yet developed a health-care plan after a decade in politics, Trump could reply only that he had "concepts of a plan."
Almost from the start, Harris was in control. She had better moments and worse ones, but she was human where Trump was feral. She had warm words for political opponents such as John McCain and Dick Cheney; Trump had warm words for nobody other than Viktor Orban, the Hungarian strongman whom Trump praised for praising Trump. It was an all-points beatdown, and no less a beating because Trump inflicted so much of it on himself.
At a minimum, this display will put an end to the Trump claim that Harris is a witless nonentity unqualified to engage in debate. Harris met Trump face-to-face before tens of millions of witnesses. She dominated and crushed him, using as her principal tools her self-command and her shrewd insight into the ex-president's psychic, moral, and intellectual weaknesses.
Will it matter that Harris so decisively won? How can it not? But it may matter more that Trump so abjectly lost to a competitor for whom he could not utter a syllable of respect.
About the Author
David Frum is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
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One of the biggest story lines of this election is how much the right underestimated Kamala Harris. Only an idiot would claim that an Attorney General / U.S. Senator / Vice President is not intelligent, but the Jesse Waters, Alex Jones, right wing You Tubers, and Donald trumps of the world convinced themselves of that.
They got what they deserved last night.
They would have been better off not showing up, even if at the last minute, but now they’re saddled with the most embarrassing debate performance in US political history. When will they learn? You can’t joyride a T-Rex.
No that prize goes to Biden a few weeks back.
Oh how Trump sycophant's wish he was still running against Biden. They long for the days just a few short weeks back when they believed their Frothy Fuhrer had the election in the bag.
The maga cult prefers to live in the past.
So true DP, so true.
The Democrats are a party made up largely of goldfish brains. They've forgotten Biden exists. As far they know, they've always loved Harris and she's always been their hero.
So sad that you wish Biden was still in the race. So funny!
That's interesting. The Republicans are a party made up largely of people with the brain capacity of an amoeba. You can tell by many of their comments. Oh, wait... amoebas don't have brains...
Yep. Goldfish are a lot smarter than amoebas.
She's really not, at least for the standards of those offices. Back in ancient times (six months ago) when Democrats were telling us how sharp and energetic Joe Biden was, the DEMOCRATIC media was pointing out her rank incompetence at things like understanding briefings and managing an office. Not to mention her handlers hide her from media because they know letting her answer questions off script hurts, rather than helps her electability.
If she was a smart and capable communicator, she'd be doing interviews and holding press conferences to explain her positions. She does none of those things.
On the whole, you promote Trump for the office of president and demean Harris for the same office. That is totally inexcusable.
Not everybody has to feel the same way you do.
“That is totally inexcusable.”
Perhaps less inexcusable, as that goes to an individual choice. Given that choice, it is more inexplicable.
My wife observed that he couldn’t look at her, either.
In spite of his bravado, he’s actually spineless.
After their handshake, he never looked at her a single time. He spent the entire debate imitating his mugshot.
He's a total coward.
I'll be he's even scared to grab her pussy.