The Gloves Came Off in a Combative Debate

By Charles Dervarics

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump squared off in a heated debate last night that saw the presidential candidates cover familiar ground — from abortion to the border — but with a bevy of personal attacks that surprisingly had the former president on the defensive.

While Trump predictably leveled some of these attacks, Vice President Harris repeatedly took the offensive to criticize Trump and get him off his game. This strategy was most evident during a tense back-and-forth exchange about the border, when Harris invited voters to attend a Trump rally.

“You’ll hear about Hannibal Lecter, how windmills cause cancer, and what you’ll also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.”

Rather than go back to criticizing Harris over immigration, the former president instead defended his rallies and crowd sizes. He also opted for unconfirmed claims about migrants in Ohio eating their neighbors’ pets.

While Trump labeled Harris a “Marxist” for her past progressive views, the vice president used several issues to dig at the former president. She noted his many indictments and felony convictions and claimed that military and world see him as a “disgrace.”

She told viewers the former president cares most about himself. “Donald Trump actually has no plan for you, because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.”

For his part, Trump seemed to score some points by citing prices that have climbed “60-, 70-, 80% higher than they were a few years ago” and pledging to cut taxes and “create a great economy” similar, he said, to his own presidential record prior to the pandemic.

He also criticized the Biden-Harris administration for only taking action on immigration a few months before the election and criticized Harris for her past views including a ban on fracking — a major issue in one of the key battlegrounds, Pennsylvania.

Both candidates skirted interviewer questions to tout some favorite talking points. Harris sidestepped a question about whether voters are better off than they were four years ago, instead citing her plans to support affordable housing and expand the child tax credit. Trump turned aside a question about his past statements on abortion to criticize Democrats for supporting late-term procedures.

The debate in Philadelphia was billed as perhaps the only meeting between Harris and Trump prior to the election. After last night’s event, the Harris campaign called for another debate, and Fox News also has invited the nominees to meet again before the Nov. 5 election.

All that was topped, for Vice President Harris, last night with a post-debate endorsement from Taylor Swift.

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…meanwhile…

CPI Gets Closer – Closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target, and anyway, an interest rate cut of a quarter- to a half-point is expected to come out from next week’s meeting. For August, the Consumer Price Index dropped to 2.5% according to the Labor Department, down from a 2.9% annual rate in July. The month-over-month increase was 0.2%, same as July, with an 0.5% increase in shelter accounting for most the increase in prices. Food was up 0.2%, consisting of food away from home up 0.3% and food at home unchanged from July. Energy was off 0.8%.

--TL

1 Comment

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Kate McLeod says:

September 11, 2024 at 11:55 am

Last night. It’s true. The cost of four ounces of cream cheese in New York City was $10 the last time I checked. Do we blame Biden, the supply chain/pandemic or corporate greed? Among the calculated 33 lies told by wannabe King, Donny, the inflation for food, housing and fuel is apparent. The exit from Afghanistan should have been planned and it did result in chaos. Now, may I continue?
A very rich man who didn’t pay workers wants to destroy the Constitution, wants complete immunity as president. Take a moment here and think about this person in a powerful position in the world with no guardrails. Example: when the Democrats put a bill forward to protect the border–one of his favorite screeds because frankly, he does not have a platform–he got on the phone to the sycophants in Congress and told them to veto it, which, being the sycophants they are, did his bidding.
I felt outrage when he accused my side of executing babies and favoring abortion in the 9th month. What kind of monster would come up with that? He said and I quote, “execute the baby.” That is what he said. And does he not understand rape and incest? I think he knows what rape is, but the deeper problem here is that this person has no capacity for empathy. If you are going to lead a country as diverse as America, you have to feel something for someone other than yourself. He can’t. I have another question for Donald Trump: could you explain what IVF is?
Trump stood up in front of the country and said he had not read Project 2025. OK, we know he doesn’t read. So does Melania read to him at night? And do the tenants of Project 2025 give him so much comfort that it puts him to sleep? Out with DEI. Out with gender difference, critical race theory.
What about his support of national sales tax? Protect the billionaires; burden low- and middle income families.
Harris landed on her feet last night. The commentators began their analysis with the fact that Harris baited him at every turn and at every turn he took the bait. But when she was answering questions, I never felt her strategy. I felt like she was honestly trying to answer our questions about how the government is running the country, how working class and middle income families are going to survive and what role we play in keeping the world a safer place. I just didn’t notice. Once it was pointed out I realized that this experienced prosecutor did what she knows how to do.

Inflation: Trump lied. Fact: the year-over-year inflation rate has fallen since its 2022 peak under Biden. It was at 2.9% in July 2024, the most recent month available. I’ll check the cost of cream cheese today.

Do you want to talk about immigrants eating cats and dogs? Do you? This is what you get if you are going to vote for a disturbed, self-involved person. Also, crime is down and immigrants, fearful of being deported, are not the ones committing most crimes.

Fave Donald phrase: “in the history of our country”. Could Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham and Donald Trump have a fireside chat on national television to see what he actually knows about the history of our country?

To my nephew the gun owner: Both Harris and Walz are gun owners. They’re not about to “take your guns away”. What needs to happen, is getting guns out of the hands of mentally disturbed individuals so that children in grade school aren’t gunned down. Are you OK with not having anymore school shootings? You’re OK with that, right?

Other topics: NATO, Ukraine, concepts of a plan (Is that like infrastructure week?) 60 attempts to kill the healthcare plan (thank you john McCain), why don’t I invite the Taliban to Camp David, Victor Orban a bestie as is Putin. It is so clear that he can’t manage the fact that he lost the election–folks it’s been 3 1/2 years, that he can’t listen to any criticism about his over-the-top mouthing of insanities at his rallies. I don’t know a diagnosis–is it narcissism? You cannot be diagnosed by a psychiatrist unless you are evaluated in person. But what I do know is that I don’t want this fragile democracy turned into an autocracy where the only people that count are white Christians.

I live in New York City. I come from Massachusetts, but I have known for a long time that this is where I belong. Know why? Every day, I walk out on the street and I look around and up at the sky and feel a thrill. “I live here,” I say to myself. And in the three block walk to the subway, I see several different colors of skin, I can even possibly if I’m lucky, hear four different languages. I live near celebrities and I don’t really care. I get on the MTA and in ten minutes I can be 80 blocks south and on my way to a play or a meeting. I can cross town in three stops and get to my doctor’s appointment. I can enjoy countless cuisines. And I can walk to Zabar’s where sometimes I get to talk to Saul Zabar. What’s not to like about diversity? Are you kidding me?