A Final Review Of The Trump-Harris 2024 Presidential Debate

Along with millions of Americans, I watched the Trump-Harris debate this past Tuesday night.  I generally saw what I expected to see.  

After the Trump-Biden debate in June with Biden being exposed as the addled staggerer he has become, the bar for Vice President Kamala Harris was a low one, which she met.  President Trump performed as I expected he would and if he came across as somewhat defensive it may be because the debate was essentially 3 on 1 with debate “moderators” David Muir and Linsey Davis not challenging the Vice President past their initial questions while simultaneously purporting to “fact check” Trump.  The bias was transparent but that also didn’t surprise me.

What I found interesting was two different things: 1) what both Trump and VP Harris needed to accomplish in the debate; and 2). How Independents viewed the debate.

Firstly, the Harris presidential campaign has labored mightily to protect her from any unscripted moment with the media.  While the Trump-Vance team has done over 60 wide ranging interviews together and separately, the Harris-Walz team has done only a handful, and they were not substantive or policy-based but showcased the “vibes” and “joy” of the Harris candidacy. 

Nevertheless, the VP stated, “my values haven’t changed.”  However, with no specifics about her policy positions all a reasonable undecided voter can do is conclude from this statement that she embraces the Biden policy, or she still embraces the views she has held for years in her Leftist California.  Neither is good for her politically.  

This is my point.

The questions a voter may have include whether she still favors banning fracking; whether she still favors unlimited abortion; whether she still supports a single-payer (i.e., government run) health care system in which private health insurance is abolished.  Whether she still supports the invasion of illegals on our southern border; whether she still favors mandatory gun buybacks and/or maintains her general hostility to the right to keep and bear arms? Or, what she proposes to do about the inflation that is still punishing average Americans daily; How does she view the debacle of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan?   Perhaps most importantly, voters may wonder what she means when she speaks of all of the things she will accomplish “on day one” when she has been Vice President for almost 4 years?  In the debate, she provided no guidance.

To my second point: did the debate affect the view of Independent voters of Harris?  I reference the remark of political pundit Charlie Kirk who stated on X that “Reuters interviewed 10 undecided voters after the debate.  Six said they are now voting for Trump or leaning that way.  Three said Harris. One remains unsure.  This wasn’t a debate about who delivered the zingers or one-liners.  It was about who could move the middle. Trump won.” 

I also found it interesting how closely Independents aligned with Republicans—at times even overlapping—as they watched the debate in real time using knobs with colors; blue (Democrat), red (Republican) and yellow (Independent) to register agreement or disagreement as the candidates spoke. 

Post debate, a focus group was hosted by Fox News journalist Harris Faulkner who was joined by pollster Lee Carter.  Carter stated that “I didn’t expect this.  Independents are tracking very much with Republicans. They’re looking for a couple of things. They’re looking for answers on immigration, they’re looking for answers on the economy. (And also fracking and abortion).  They want to hear that things will get better for them, and they also want change from what is happening right now.” Carter continued. “One of the most important things they were looking for last night from Kamala Harris is ‘how are you going to make it different’?

This is why the uber-liberal tool of the Democrat party, the New York Times, concluded, ‘Pundits Said Harris Won the Debate. Undecided Voters Weren’t So Sure … They want to see the fine print.’ Further, the highly regarded Democrat data analyst and statistician/pollster, Nate Silver, gives Harris a slight boost to her chances of winning after Tuesday’s debate. But, as of Thursday, following the debate, the pollster projects Trump has a 60.6 percent chance of victory, while Harris has 39.2 percent.

Why would this be? Because Harris did not substantively answer any questions and that is likely going to send the majority of undecided voters to Trump.  Regardless of how inartfully, Trump made his positions clear.  I think he will benefit from this debate.