PHILADELPHIA—In a debate long on fireworks but often short on substance, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris slammed her Republican foe, Donald Trump, repeatedly for taking away the constitutional right to abortion.
From abortion rights to immigration, Trump showed the clear and present danger he would pose to the nation if he ever re-entered the White House.
Some of that danger would result from a man willing to make absurd and dangerous remarks about anything he feels will serve his interests. He talked, for example, about migrants allegedly eating pet cats in Springfield, Ohio and when the moderator told him the local police had debunked the story he doubled down on it anyway.
If you used debate scoring points rather than issues as your guide, with Harris repeatedly riling Trump by criticizing his presidential record, contrasting her “vision of the future” with his “taking us back to the past,” the Vice President emerged the overwhelming winner,
“We’re not going back,” she declared, repeating a signature campaign theme.
Trump, over and over again, even if it was completely off topic, targeting migrants with lies, just as he had in his prior presidential runs four and eight years ago. And Trump never mentioned Harris by name, but at least 15 times cited retiring Democratic President Joe Biden. Harris had to remind him that he was running against her, not Biden. Biden was pushed out of the race after a disastrous prior debate against Trump.
Sometimes the two candidates got into substance, notably when Harris discussed abortion rights. It’s been a signature issue for her both in the Biden-Harris administration and while campaigning. She was gesturing and energetically making her case for that constitutional right all through the debate.
Abortion has been and remains a top issue for voters ever since Trump-named Supreme Court justices formed the core of the majority that ended the constitutional right nationwide two years ago. Harris repeatedly reminded viewers that Trump brags about picking the right-wing justices who killed abortion rights, and she forecast worse to come if he wins.
By contrast, “I’ll be a president to protect fundamental rights and freedoms, including a woman’s right to run her own body,” Harris declared. And if Congress passes a law restoring the right, “I’ll sign it.”
Former prosecutor Harris didn’t spare Trump’s criminal record, ranging from illegally barring Blacks from his housing developments more than 50 years ago to his declaration last year he would abolish the U.S. Constitution—and his aiding and abetting the Trumpite insurrection at the U.S. Capitol three and a half years ago.
Trump blamed the invasion on two female Democrats. Whining about persecution, he charged, as usual, that all the court cases, and convictions, against him are politically motivated.
And so it went, including some wild Trump swings that missed: “She has a plan to defund the police. She has a plan to take away your guns,” charged Trump, who has the enthusiastic backing of police unions and the now-crooked gun lobby. Harris ignored both charges, but added that she and Tim Walz, her vice presidential running mate, are both gun owners “who have no intention of taking anyone’s guns away.”
Retaliation by lies
Trump retaliated by returning again and again to his lies about migrants. Though he didn’t say so on stage in Philadelphia, Trump hates migrants from countries with majorities of color, but not white Northern Europeans. His family hails from Germany and Scotland.
Trump stated without proof that 21 million migrants “have overrun the U.S.,” and charged they commit crimes at record numbers and take U.S. jobs. Reliable estimates put the number of undocumented people at 11 million. The other two statements are lies, too.
The number of migrants has dropped drastically, as has crime overall. And the migrants are less crime-prone than native-born people are, studies show. The two TV journalists called him on those lies, but he said the FBI statistics they cited are fake.
Trump wants to deport all those millions. Challenged how he would do that, he ducked.
“We’re a failing nation and a nation in serious decline,” Trump whined in his closing statement. “We’re laughed at all over the world,” he claimed, citing a reported private comment to him from Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban. Meanwhile, the migrants “are destroying our country.”
The debate left many questions unanswered. Some, including workers’ rights, went unasked, though Harris proudly claimed the endorsement from the Auto Workers and their reformist president, Shawn Fain. Trump vilifies Fain for agreeing to manufacturing electric vehicles and UAW for following him.
She also strongly endorsed continued U.S. leadership—many call it imperialism or hegemony—worldwide. That includes bolstering the NATO alliance, which is arguably the most dangerous military alliance active anywhere in the world today.
She warned that Russia’s Putin had his eyes on countries in Europe and would be encouraged to invade if he won the war in Ukraine. Putin’s Russia, of course, had close economic relationships with the EU, selling them energy before the war. The deals were far more profitable than any war and helped support peace in Europe. Now U.S. fossil fuel companies have moved in and are selling fracked U.S. gas, for example, to the EU countries.
It was U.S. policy to break up any cooperation between Europe and Russia by pushing for expansion of NATO right up to the borders of Russia, by pushing for NATO membership for Ukraine and by blowing up the pipelines that delivered Russian energy to Europe. None of that is mentioned by either candidate for the presidency, Democratic or Republican and what is common knowledge in Europe is being withheld from the American people.
Harris sketched out pieces of an economic program, including some very positive ones like a $6,000 tax break for families with little kids and a $25,000 federal subsidy for new homebuyers. Trump never spelled out a program, other than more tax cuts for the wealthy.
Harris also reiterated her promise to extend caps on prescription drug prices beyond the ten medicines, notably insulin, that her boss, current Democratic President Joe Biden, instituted.
Trump lies about replacing Affordable Care Act
For his part, Trump again denounced the Affordable Care Act, calling it “lousy health care.” Voters now like it, after it’s been law for about a decade and a half.
Like four and eight years ago, Trump promised to come up with something cheaper and better. Pushed, he wouldn’t say what. That led Harris to point out Trump’s Republicans tried dozens of times, and failed, to kill the ACA.
And she praised the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for casting the deciding vote to keep the ACA by killing a GOP bill to repeal it. McCain literally got off what would be his deathbed to turn his thumb down to kill the repeal.
“McCain said ‘No, you don’t’” kill the ACA, Harris said. Turning to Trump, she added, “You have no plan.”
Harris promised to improve the ACA, instead. But Harris in turn ducked a question about her past support for government-run Medicare For All, a position supported by more than a dozen unions and a majority of the U.S. people.
They’re fed up with a health care system that is too expensive, too inefficient and takes money out of people’s pockets and paychecks and puts it in the hands of rapacious insurers, who are some of the worst denizens of the corporate class.
“The only question I ever asked” constituents and clients in her political career as San Francisco DA, California Attorney General and as a U.S. senator from the Golden State was “Are you OK?” Harris said. She wanted them to be OK with what she planned and proposed.
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