The surveys revealed a dead heat, both nationally and in seven jump state, in the weeks leading up to this week’s national conversation between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. The 2024 civilization is, by all measures, the closest presidential race we have seen in our life. However, the candidate who wins the election becomes a referendum on the common national math.
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The purpose of the debate was threefold for Trump: to make the case that Kamala Harris is in charge of the Biden-Harris White House’s failed policies and that he is the agent of change, a claim that the majority of Americans tend to concur with, and to make it clear that Harris is extremely far-left, that she is lying about her latest policy positions in order to safeguard them from scrutiny, and that she is ignorant, having blown every task she has ever been given. In brief, Harris is a encryption, it is Trump’s work to understand just who she is.
For Harris, the job was more complicated: she had to prevent all of these factors,  , and , she had to somehow get more by providing an efficient shop. It was n’t enough to merely dodge punches, she had to establish that she is , different , than Joe Biden in some marked way, that she is a moderate who has experienced a change of heart, and that she is n’t the cackler who regularly enjoys a heaping helping of word salad.
And for the administrators, the job was to enable Kamala Harris reach all of these things.
They undoubtedly did their best. The most appalling moderating performance in national background was performed by David Muir and Linsey Davis. They repeatedly ( and wrongly ) fact-checked Trump four times, without ever calling Harris on a single one of her lies. They allowed Harris to skateboard on her car sticker phrases and demanded explanation while allowing her to do so after receiving follow-ups. They demanded that Trump ignore clear actions to Harris ‘ sits while structuring their questions to elicit prepared messages from him.
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It worked. Trump was completely off of his activity by it. Distracted by the three-on-one pile-on, eager to defend himself from every demand and to participate in brawls over his notes and history, Trump forgot his purpose for being there: to pin Harris. Instead, he spoke about Jan. 6 and the 2020 election, his work on COVID, his tariff ideas, and his conversations with the Taliban.
Harris, however, appeared somewhat cool and collected, she dodged almost every query, with the help of her Praetorian Guard.
But there’s a difficulty: Because both Harris and the press were so intent on dragging Trump down,  , they , forgot that Harris needs to do more than tag Trump, she needs to , reinvent herself.  , She did n’t do that at all during the debate. Some Americans might have felt more unsure about her vacuity after the discussion. But no one will be happy to learn that she represents a nation changing course. No one will be misled into thinking that she is a mild reformer. That’s because she is n’t. Yes, she did better than Trump did, with the help of her devoted functionaries. But she did n’t close the deal.
Perhaps that’s because she , ca n’t  , close the deal. Americans simply cannot accept the falsehoods that they tell. In the end, she is only the nomination because she is Joe Biden’s vice chairman, she has not won a second primary voting as a member. In the end, she is only on the conversation level because of the Biden-Harris management, in which she claims a vital role. In the end, Harris is the socialist candidate for Bernie Sanders in 2019, and Harris claims that her values have n’t changed.
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Americans are n’t ridiculous. And they continue to be questioned more about Harris than Trump. Trump also needs to remind Americans to do those things in two more months.
