Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met for the first time on the presidential debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
They may have shaken hands, but they couldn't communicate.
During a fiery 90 minutes, Harris repeatedly attacked the former president with personal attacks that took him off message and raised the temperature in this highly anticipated contest.
Her scathing criticism of the size of his rallies, his conduct during the Capitol riot, and officials who served in his administration and have since become vocal critics of his campaign have left Trump on the defensive.
The pattern for much of the debate was for Harris to goad her Republican opponent into defending his behavior and past comments at length, and he would happily respond, sometimes raising his voice and shaking his head.
During an early question on immigration, Harris said Americans should go to Trump rallies because they are helpful. “People start leaving rallies early because they are tired and bored,” she said.
The mockery clearly irked the former president, who spent much of his answer — on a topic that should have been one of his main areas of strength — defending and downplaying the size of his demonstrations.
Trump went from there to a lengthy rant about a debunked report that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were kidnapping and eating their neighbors' pets.
If the ultimate outcome of debates is to win or lose based on which candidate plays better on the issues on which he is strong — and defends or avoids the weak points — Tuesday night was in favor of the vice president.
A CNN poll of voters watching the game showed Harris performing better, and the betting markets confirmed that.
This is a quick snapshot that may be fleeting, but Harris's tactic of putting Trump on the defensive was evident early in the evening when the topics being discussed were the economy and abortion.
Public opinion polls indicate that many Americans are dissatisfied with the way the Biden administration — of which Harris is a key member — has handled inflation and the economy.
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But Harris shifted the subject to Trump's proposed sweeping tariffs, which she called a “Trump sales tax,” and then brought up Project 2025, the controversial independent conservative plan for a future Republican administration.
As he has in the past, Trump distanced himself from the project and defended his tariff plan, noting that the Biden administration had kept many of the tariffs in place during his first term. These were valid points, but they prevented him from attacking the vice president on inflation and consumer prices.
On abortion, Trump has defended his handling of the issue, saying that Americans of all stripes want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade’s abortion protections — a claim that is not supported by polls. Trump has struggled to explain his position and his answers have been at times incoherent.
Meanwhile, Harris took the opportunity to make an emotional, personal appeal to families who faced severe complications during pregnancy and were unable to receive abortion care in states that banned the procedure — states that imposed “Trump’s abortion ban,” as she called it.
“It's an insult to American women,” she concluded.
It was a carefully calibrated message in an area where she has a double-digit advantage over Trump.
Time after time, as the evening progressed, Harris put Trump on the defensive with stabs and barbs that he could have ignored but apparently felt compelled to respond to.
At one point, Harris was asked about liberal positions, such as those on shale oil extraction, that she took during her failed 2019 presidential campaign and has since abandoned. She continued with her deliberate prodding and ended her answer by pointing out that she did not receive subsidies from her wealthy father.
Once again, the former president fell into the trap. Instead of attacking the vice president for her change of heart—an obvious weakness—he began his response by talking about the “tiny bit” of money he took from his father.
On the withdrawal from Afghanistan, another weak spot for Harris, the vice president turned the conversation to Trump’s negotiations with Taliban officials and their invitation to Camp David. This pattern has been repeated over and over again and has proven effective.
Republicans are already complaining about what they say is favoritism toward Harris by ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, who have both responded to and fact-checked Trump’s claims on multiple occasions.
But in the end, it was Trump's reactions and his eagerness to eat whatever Harris laid out for him that was the story of the evening.
This was clearly evident in the faces of the candidates. Whenever her opponent spoke, Harris would wear a studied look of bewilderment or disbelief. Trump, for his part, was often frowning.
So far, the Harris campaign has been tight-lipped about whether it would agree to another debate. Almost immediately after the debate ended, it called for a second presidential debate before November.
That alone should indicate how successful Harris was in achieving her goals Tuesday night, according to Democrats.
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