Vice President Harris shakes former President Trump’s hand in the opening moments of the debate. (by Saul Loeb, ABC News , https://abcnews.go.com/US/harris-trump-shake-hands-debate-stage/story?id=113569492)

Biden and Trump during the last debate in June, shortly before Biden’s exit from the race https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/27/politics/takeaways-biden-trump-debate/index.html

Vice President Harris Improves, but Is it Enough?

While the debate was said to have helped Harris motivate her Democratic base, undecided voters often felt unswayed by either speaker. In the current American political system, elections are often decided by the slimmest of margins in key swing states, many of which hold large numbers of undecided voters. Hence, both campaigns are highly targeting these undecided voters, with Trump’s campaign focusing on issues such as the economy and immigration, and Harris’s campaign combining policy issues with the danger of a second Trump presidency. Yet, the reaction of these undecided voters to the debate shows that neither side is making particular headway. Compared to the last debate, despite her performance being far stronger than Biden’s, many voters still felt unsatisfied with the Vice President’s performance, with many saying they felt she did not present enough policy proposals for them to vote for her yet.

The Struggles of the Former President

Despite former President Trump’s claims that he won the debate, even his close allies and prominent members of the right-wing media in the US have openly said the opposite. Key to Trump’s failures in the debate is said to be the debate’s setup, in which, unlike the June debate, fact-checking did take place, leading to four of Trump’s claims being rebuked, compared to none of Vice President Harris’s. Furthermore, Harris’s assertiveness and use of rhetorical traps that Trump fell victim to only hurt Trump’s performance more. Additionally, certain issues that Trump had used to his advantage in the last debate, such as age, the economy, and immigration, among others, were either turned against him or had little to no effect. 

Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Tim Walz, the Vice Presidential Candidates, will debate on October 2 (by CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-debate-rules-vp-debate-2024/)

Featured image courtesy of Saul Loeb, ABC News, 2024 (cover)