The biggest loser in the first (and likely only) presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was ABC News, which hosted the face-off. The moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, embarrassed themselves and their network by, among other things, fact-checking Trump in real time on more than one occasion – sometimes incorrectly – while allowing Harris to spout serial lies and distortions.
Social media blew up early on in the debate with commentators on the right, in particular, calling Tuesday night’s face-off the worst and most one-sided debate in history.
IN THE TRUMP-HARRIS FACE-OFF THERE WAS A CLEAR WINNER BUT DON'T BELIEVE THIS ELECTION IS OVER
Some of the non-truths Harris could (and should have been) fact-checked on:
1. Talking about Project 2025 as if it were Trump’s manifesto, and saying that he will pass a nationwide abortion ban
2. Dredging up Trump’s Charlottesville comment – that there were "very fine people on both sides" – which has been debunked
3. Saying Trump had overseen the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, which was caused by the pandemic
4. Saying Donald Trump has opposed IVF
5. Denying that Kamala Harris ever called for gun confiscation (there are videos of her doing just that)
6. Saying that Trump’s tax cuts only helped rich people
7. And my special bete noir – saying that she and Biden have "created" 800,000 manufacturing jobs, which is simply not true.
There were others. Harris lied about her record and about Trump’s and was not challenged on any of it.
Perhaps that was inevitable; the liberal media is in full panic mode now that Harris’ honeymoon appears to have faded and Trump has pulled even and, in some polls, moved back into the lead.
Harris’ pathetic effort to avoid committing to any policies while on the campaign trail has failed; her refusal to do solo interviews and press conferences has left American voters in the dark. Consequently, the debate was important. People want to know where she stands. Unfortunately, because she deflected on most of the questions and did not flesh out the very few policies she has offered, they still have very little idea of her views.
ABC DEBATE MODERATORS SPARK FURY FOR AGGRESSIVE FACT-CHECKING OF TRUMP, EASY TREATMENT OF HARRIS
That should have been the job of the moderators, but they declined to do it. Instead, they allowed her to prattle on with Biden-like platitudes. Once again, a bitterly partisan candidate is promising to bring the country together. Remember that one?
The moderators asked Harris early on whether people were better off under the Biden-Harris administration than they had been under Trump, and instead of citing areas of progress (perhaps because there are none), she launched into describing her "opportunity economy." This denotes her "plan," which she touted frequently and which apparently rests on giving people money to buy a home, giving people money to start a business and giving people money to help them raise children.
How taxpayers will pay for all these "opportunities" was left unsaid. This is, of course, very Bidenesque – promise money to important voting groups like young people who have drifted away from Democrats and small business owners, who have historically lined up behind Trump.
TRUMP SPARS WITH HARRIS, MODERATORS DURING HEATED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: 'SHE DOESN'T HAVE A PLAN'
Trump, on the other hand, failed to prosecute his case. While Harris appeared over-prepared and practiced, with ready-to-go gestures and studied mannerisms, Trump was clearly under-prepared. It is frustrating to his supporters, because he has the facts on his side. He actually did build a strong economy, but saw it slammed by COVID. He actually did leave the world at peace, and negotiated significant new alliances between Middle Eastern countries. He actually did demote Iran’s ability to wage proxy wars through sanctions and constrained Russia’s energy dominance by cancelling the Nordstream 2 Pipeline. And, he alerted the world to China’s dishonest intentions and rule-breaking; none of his predecessors had tried to rein in Beijing.
But instead of forcefully arguing about his successes, he meandered. And, he forgot to smile.
Rather than patiently and systematically challenging Harris with evidence that his administration had helped the middle class more than hers, Trump reverted to form, claiming once again that he actually won the 2020 election.
That was a mistake, and the liberal press was doubtless jumping for joy. His comments will breathe new life into Biden and Harris’ warnings about Trump being a threat to democracy, a talking point that had all but vanished from the political discourse in recent months.
He repeatedly bashed Harris over her failure to curb illegal immigration, but failed to specify the damage done by the inflow of migrants to our cities, neglected to talk about the huge number of people killed by fentanyl because of our open border or the 320,000 children that the White House has lost track of. That was low-hanging fruit, and an opportunity missed.
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He also rose to the bait more than once. When Harris slammed his rallies, saying people got bored and walked out, he couldn’t resist devolving into arguing about crowd sizes…again.
Trump did manage to make some good points, noting, for instance, that despite criticism over his tariff policy, the Biden-Harris White House had left intact his fees on imports from China, because they were effective. He also pushed back on the jobs supposedly "created" by the current White House, calling them "bounce-back" jobs. He’s right.
His most effective moment of the evening was asking, in his concluding statement, why she hadn’t moved forward with her "opportunity economy" and her other plans during the past three and a half years? Why hadn’t she fixed the border or created more jobs?
That’s the question the moderators should have asked.
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