In the minutes leading up to the first and likely only debate last night in Philadelphia between two presidential contenders who’d never met, a unique fact considering the election is just 55 days out, one national CBS correspondent, who’d spoken to Kamala Harris’s team prior to the showdown, telegraphed the VP’s debate strategy, reporting, “She wants to needle Trump.”
And on that scorecard, Harris won by unanimous decision.
“Baited him” has become the preferred phrase pundits and op-ed writers across the nation have roundly used the last 24 hours to depict Harris’s tactical performance that sought to and succeeded at bludgeoning Trump’s ego.
Even before the opening bell, she crossed the stage and got up into his personal space to shake Trump’s hand; sizing him up like a prize fighter, asserting her prowess, while putting him on notice as they touched gloves.
Throughout the lopsided bout, she landed head shot after head shot, excoriating Trump on abortion, being a nepo baby, goading his futile attempts to repeal Obamacare and inability to accept he’d lost the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. Clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that” Harris jabbed.
She called him “weak,” and declared that “world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump.” A one-two combination, she followed up with an uppercut as she faced him head-on, striking, “I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you. They say you’re a disgrace!”
But out of all the painful blows she landed, for me, it was her kidney shot on Trump’s crowds, roughly 30 minutes into the scrap that wounded Trump’s pride, got under his skin, threw him off balance and opened him up to the beating to come.
During that moment, Harris was fielding a question about immigration. After citing how Trump had purposefully sullied for political gain an immigration bill both Republicans and Democrats supported and were prepared to vote for, she pivoted to his rallies in a masterful broadside.
It’s worth reading her entire quote:
“I’m going to actually do something that is really unusual. I am going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies. Because it is a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hanibal Lecter. He will talk about how windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.”
Visibly perturbed, when it was Trump’s turn to discuss immigration, his “forte,” he couldn’t help himself but double-back to step into her well-laid trap.
“People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
From there, Trump would spiral into a hilarious and frightening nativist rant, citing a widely debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing and eating locals’ pets.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in. They are eating the cats. They are eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame. As far as rallies are concerned. As far as—the reason they go, they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again.”
It’s here, I’d like to briefly interject my own anecdotal experience to confirm Harris’ allegations about crowd boredom.
Over the last 8 years, I’ve attended multiple Trump rallies throughout the South to study the wildlife and cult aesthetics. In fact, I attended my first rally right here in Louisville at Freedom Hall in March of 2017, just three months into Trump’s first term, when Bevin was still our governor.
Though almost everything else about Trump’s rally is a blur now – I’d just moved back to Kentucky from New York City and will admit to getting a bit carried away with Old Forester and drive-thru liquor stores at the time – the one thing I distinctly remember, was how after 45 took to the stage, the speed in which his supporters started leaving the arena . . . the same arena where The Cards used to play basketball to insatiably packed crowds.
Within ten minutes of his opening remarks of his stump speech, hordes of followers began filing out of their aisles, pouring down the stairs and heading for the exits.
I remember taking notes (that I’ve since lost) documenting this phenomenon of MAGA acolytes who seemed to have no qualms of disrupting their congregation’s experience or their leader’s train of thought, which I was both bemused and shocked by, considering how fervent, at least superficially, his supporters seemed to be.
It looked like watching restless middle-school-aged children plagued with attention deficit disorder, who’d been forced, in mass, to read a book they were utterly disinterested in, and who preferred and in fact opted to get up and go play.
The flock could say they’d opened the book, and skimmed a few pages, and that was enough.
That memory came full circle last night, and it was enjoyable to see Harris cite similar experiences across the country as a primary exhibit to both how tedious Trump is and how disenchanted even his most fervent supporters can become with his message and campaign spectacle even in person.
It was a gut punch.
