Many people, myself included, are watching every news conference, town hall, political rally, and debate of this presidential election cycle, and most of us were not at all surprised by the tone and content of Tuesday night’s Trump-Harris debate.
Yet even those who anticipated the inevitable—Kamala Harris sounding confident, energetic, and, yes, presidential and Donald Trump sounding like he had just escaped from the locked ward of a lunatic asylum—found Trump’s performance astonishing. And it was not just those of us who are center-left on the political spectrum who were stunned; the team in the spin room at Fox News, at the conclusion of the debate, looked like they had just been hit by a freight train.
Notable was Trump’s change of coiffeur—gone is the big Barney Rubble swoop of yellow hair that formerly jutted from his forehead like a hood ornament, now replaced by fringy bronze bangs—although he still appears unwilling to part with his clunky suit jackets and endless red ties.
Unfortunately, apart from changing his hair style, the candidate himself remained utterly true to form.
One could almost hear the collective groan when Trump accused refugees living in Springfield, Ohio, of eating their neighbors’ dogs. He then went on to reprise a number of his greatest hits: Democrats kill babies after they are born; Kamala Harris is not really Black; Harris wants to take away everyone’s guns; the insurrection on January 6 was Nancy Pelosi’s fault, not his; illegal immigrants are stealing Black jobs; Americans are ecstatic about abortion bans; he has the biggest crowd sizes and polling numbers in the history of the universe; America is a failed nation; Harris is forcing undocumented migrants to have “sex-change operations” while incarcerated; he knows absolutely nothing about Project 2025, and has not read it.
The only true statement he uttered all night was that he had not actually read Project 2025, and this is unsurprising as well. He has not read Project 2025 because he never reads anything. Not the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) while he still occupied the White House; not the Bible he keeps trying to sell to his gullible base; not the teleprompter at his rallies. He reads nothing. But since Project 2025 was written for him, and for his benefit, by all of his once-and-future employees, he did not have to read it. He already knows what is in it: his personal plan to end democracy.
Meanwhile, Harris was pitch-perfect. Her debate performance was flawless. Whatever lingering indigestion Democrats felt after the disastrous Biden-Trump debate in June, her performance was like a Mylanta mega-shot. Nausea be gone! Harris is in the house!
The split screen of the debate was priceless: Trump spewing nonsense, a perpetual scowl on his face, and Harris gazing at him in wonder and amusement as he set a match to his candidacy. She was better prepared, more nimble, more dynamic, more informed, more energetic, and, yes, more joyful, than he could have been on his best day—and his best days are long behind him.
Harris spoke capably and confidently about Putin, Orban, China, Ukraine, and the Middle East. She outlined her plan to make home ownership, small-business start-ups, and affordable childcare a priority for Americans. As for the issue of abortion, she made it clear, once again, that she would sign abortion rights into law as soon as she takes office—as long as we have a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress who can draft and pass the legislation. Think about that when you are voting for candidates up and down the ballot this year.
Without question, Trump’s base will remain faithful even as he circles the drain. They consider every lie a pearl of wisdom; they receive every rant about Hannibal Lecter and dog-eating immigrants with unbridled delight; they love it when he plays the Liar’s Accordion—although on Tuesday he played it with only one hand, because he was clinging to the podium for dear life with the other.
Donald Trump is a freak, and he let his freak flag fly on Tuesday night. Good for him, and really good for Kamala Harris. Keep flying that flag, Donald, and make sure to wave it vigorously on your way to oblivion this November.
