EDITORIAL: Harris crushed Trump in Tuesday’s debate | Denver Gazette

To make it through Tuesday’s debate, Vice President Kamala Harris just needed to avoid an embarrassing defeat. Harris far exceeded expectations, winning the debate after former President Donald Trump fell into every trap she laid for her.

It began with a question to Harris that could and should have been Trump’s weapon. ABC co-host Linsey Davis asked Harris: “Do you think Americans are better off economically than they were four years ago?”

Of course not. Just ask her. That was a question Trump should have made her answer at every opportunity. It was a chance to expose her as radically left-wing and economically challenged. Instead of making the debate about her, Trump made it about himself – and that hasn’t done him any good.

Not surprisingly, Harris neglected to answer the moderator’s first question. Instead, she told the audience that she believes in “the ambition, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people” and that she has a plan to build an “economy of opportunity.”

Harris stopped short of discussing the plan, but told of “a woman who raised us.” The woman owned a small business, and that’s why Harris loves small businesses. Trump and the moderators let it slide.

Harris called Trump’s promise to impose higher tariffs on foreign goods a “Trump sales tax.”

Trump should have presented a litany of data showing how much worse off the average American is today than he was four years ago. He could have gone on the offensive and blamed Harris for crippling inflation, high taxes, the housing shortage and international instability. The facts alone would have served him well.

Instead, Trump put on an angry expression that froze until the end. He took the “sales tax” bait and began to defend his unpopular tariffs. From there, in the wake of the “four years ago” question, Trump stumbled awkwardly into a tirade about “millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and detention centers, from mental institutions and asylums.”

He’s not wrong, but it distracted viewers from the real economic issue – by far the most important issue for undecided Americans trying to choose a candidate. Viewers who expected Trump to win on the economic issues were disappointed.

By not holding Harris accountable for her role in “Bidenomics,” Trump failed to define her. Since Harris didn’t have to defend the Biden-Harris economy, she turned on Trump by blaming him for unemployment numbers during the pandemic.

Harris claimed that Trump was forcing a plan called “Project 2025” on the public – which was developed by a think tank, not Trump or his campaign team.

Again, Trump spent the next few minutes on the defensive. After distancing himself from Project 25 – he said he had not read it – he complained that he was not getting enough credit for his handling of a pandemic that everyone would like to forget.

Trump’s bizarre, undisciplined wandering led Harris to declare, “So, Donald Trump has no plan for you.”

Then came abortion. Trump could and should have quickly switched to another issue that would have pulled him out of the political quagmire of reproductive rights.

Instead, Trump allowed the moderators and Harris to drag him through a minute-long, embarrassing polemic that ended with Trump going on the defensive on the issue of artificial insemination.

All night long, Trump failed to expose Harris for leaving our country weaker, poorer, and more vulnerable than when she took office.

By failing to expose his opponent’s extreme left-wing ideology, Trump squandered the chance to prove himself as the strong, determined president that Americans want. Only the election will show what that will cost.

The Gazette editorial staff