Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
The September 10th presidential debate went down as expected. Summed up, it was Sappy and the Blob pile on Grouchy.
The smarmy and evasive Kamala Harris preened, posed, and proffered empty platitudes.
The ABC moderators proved they were predictably and shamelessly biased.
And an irate Donald Trump confirmed that he was too touchy and easily triggered.
Harris’s instructions were not to explain her agenda. She never defended disowning policies that she had embraced as a lifelong, self-confessed, “woke” “radical.”
Instead, Harris’s threefold strategy was simple enough—and it mostly worked.
One, goad Trump as a coward and racist. Then smile and call for unity, kindness, and an end to such name-calling.
Harris’s orders were to zero in on hair-trigger irrelevancies that would incite and sidetrack the thin-skinned Trump.
So, Harris claimed his massive rallies were failures, crackpot—and worst of all, boring!—as she falsely added that weary attendants left early.
All that was missing from her adolescent putdowns was Barack Obama’s earlier convention speech obscenity that Donald Trump supposedly suffered from undersized genitalia.
In Harris’s upside-down, projectionist world, ex-president Trump caused the Biden-Harris disastrous skedaddle from Afghanistan.
He was accused of being mostly responsible for the effects of the global COVID-19 plague that killed over 100 million.
And somehow Trump even appeased Vladimir Putin, who then oddly attacked his neighbors during the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations but not Trump’s.
Harris mocked Trump’s businesses, claiming he was a failure. Those tactics succeeded, as a rattled Trump missed easy refutations of Harris’s naked mendacity.
The result was not an easy exposure of her lies but an off-topic defense of the size of his rallies and his wealth.
Two, Harris predictably once more reinvented herself.
She erased entirely her upper-middle class, privileged upbringing, as a child of two PhDs.
There was no mention that her radical political career was opportunistically gifted by her insider and paramour fixer, the married Bay-Area left-wing politico Wille Brown, over thirty years her senior.
Instead, Harris became a middle-class child of a struggling small businesswoman.
To cement that deception, Harris would now insist that she was always a border hawk, supported fracking, and was tough on crime. She claimed she never rallied the public to bail out violent rioters during the 2020 looting, arson, and violent demonstrations.
Harris promised to answer questions in detail but never did.
Instead, she recited scripted talking points to avoid explaining her opportune metamorphoses.
As the current vice president, Harris went mum on her apparent inability over the last three years—or in the next five months—to enact her “way forward” policies.
Three, everything else in the debate was outsourced to the ABC “moderators,” David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Both apparently calculated that if it was a question between blatantly helping Harris or appearing intellectually and professionally honest, then it was a no-brainer, partisan choice.
So, the two fact-checked Trump constantly, but never Harris once, and tried to warp the tempo of the debate.
Harris, without interruption or correction, recycled the old, discredited lies about Charlottesville, “bloodbath,” the 2025 project, and Trump’s supposed support for a federal ban on abortion.
When Trump frequently meandered off topic, the frowning moderators redirected him to answer the questions asked. Harris neither did nor was ever pressed to.
Debate rules supposedly outlawed hot-mic interruptions. But Harris was exempted.
Worse of all were the lopsided questions.
Muir and Davis fixated on the January 6 incitement. They ignored Harris’s national televised screed that the 2020 demonstrations that had proved violent neither would stop nor should stop, and as a “movement” would go on after Election Day.
When Harris lied that police on January 6 were killed by the protestors on a day apparently worse than September 11 (when 3,000 Americans were murdered), the two fact-checkers still kept mum.
Will the debate change the race?
Probably not.
Harris confirmed that she was slicker. But her habitual happy-face nodding has been seen over the last 90 days as facilitating her shallowness, stonewalling, and evasions.
Trump reestablished that he is fiery, quick-tempered, and easily provoked. But the country already knew all that from the last nine years.
Half the nation always felt Trump’s loose-cannon furor was well-directed against plastic politicians and the fusion media—and likely saw such confirmation in the debate.
The sappy Harris won the visuals; the grouchy Trump likely the issues.
But the real losers were ABC and its two partisan moderators, Muir and Davis.
Both managed to easily outdo CNN’s Candy Crowley’s infamous partisan sabotage of the 2012 debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Just as we do not remember anything else about that spectacle other than Crowley’s career-ending interventions to aid Obama, so too did Muir and Davis confirm their shameless biases.
They sought to warp a debate, disgraced their network, and offered a good reminder why such media “moderators” should never be allowed anywhere near presidential debates.
Your comments about the moderator’s bias are spot on – in addition to the points you mentioned, I had the sense that they were teeing up topics for Harris’s talking points. My issue is that Trump should have expected these tactics and prepared accordingly. He did not. Trump came across as angry and defensive. His answers were vague and if you were not informed about happenings like Springfield or Aurora, you probably missed his point on the problems with illegal immigration. J.D. Vance or Ron DeSantis would have shredded Harris.
Better yet, DeSantis would have shredded the moderators.
Amen!
Agree 💯
God willing, republican candidates have four years to prepare for the debates in 2028. Today, we have the opportunity to install a president who will slow the craziness of our country. Now is the time to rally around Trump.
The Republican party has evolved into a blend of traditional business oriented party and white blue collar workers, and an increasing number of minority workers. It’s the latter who have propelled Trump to the forefront of the party to the discomfort of the traditional Republicans, such as Cheney, Romney and others who have concluded that they should forfeit this election in the expectation that it will end the Trump era. Nonetheless, the alignment of workers with their bosses in the interests of self preservation from the Democrats is one of the Dems’ more remarkable accomplishments. Personally, I understand why people, particularly working class people, think they need protection from the Democrats, but they’ve chosen a capricious and uncertain vessel in Trump.
I’m not sure how much the debate matters for most people. Everyone knows what they will get with Trump. After four years of Biden/Harris everyone knows what they’ll get with her. This is Trump’s race to lose, just as it was in 2020, and he just might alienate enough people in a few swing states to do it, but if Harris wins she might behave less boorishly, but she will follow the Democratic’s agenda of trying to make the country poorer, all in the name of equality and saving the planet. California is a model of which the Democrats are quite proud.
Who is prepping Donald Trump? January 6 and 2020 election loss and abortion were so easily to be expected as “questions” – a prepared response instead of raining cats and dogs should have prepared.
I thought Tulsi Gabbert was hired to prep Trump, based on the way she tore into Harris in 2019. However, Tulsi mentioned on Gutfeld last night, Trump marches to his own drum so who knows if he was actually prepped. Maybe he was, maybe he decided not to do what was recommended. I did not watch bc I can’t stand Harris and I was afraid Trump was not going to debate well. He was campaigning while I think he should’ve been preparing. We didn’t learn a thing abt Harris after her orchestrated rehearsed tv performance. Maybe she’ll get an Oscar for best performance of a fake politician who lies to get votes. Vote red…Trump!!!
So true. Take it one step further. Why does the Trump campaign continue to agree to debate on platforms so obviously biased, such as any MSM organization? X was available but, for years now, Trump goes into the enemy camp, then supporters complain that he was mistreated. “Fool me once, shame on you…”
Josh,
I fully agree with you. Donald Trump wanted this nomination even though he was 78 and running for the third time in a row. He has viciously attacked Ron DeSantis, as some sort of backstabbing ingrate, and anyone else who tried to run for the nomination.
Yet anyone else would’ve made Mincemeat out of Kamala Harris at their recent debate and we wouldn’t be in a neck-and-neck race.
God help us if he (blank) this up.
I couldn’t agree more. However, in Trumps defense, I have to agree with the analysis from Jessie Waters.
Paraphrasing; “If it were not for Trumps demeanor, there isn’t a chance in hell he could have withstood everything that’s been thrown at him.”
Seriously, the man has the balls of steel.
Right off the bat, note the failure to repeat the opening question after Harris’s non sequitur verbiage. Career-ending for Muir and Davis, too? It should be, but we’ll see.
My question is: Do Republicans never learn? They keep on agreeing at these debates where the moderators are clearly biased against them and behave like partisan hacks. Why not insist on other well known journalists or even academics that can really act impartially trying to have the candidates explain their policy proposals instead of a litany of personal acussations and lies. These so called debates have become a pathetic circus that serves no one and only confirms the shallowness of our current pollitical discourse.
Romney rolled over for Crowley. This at least didn’t happen this time.
I felt I was watching two impersonators doing a parody debate. Phooey on Trump for not preparing and knowing the 3-person ambush he was walking into b
The next debate should be JDVance against Harris, Tim Walz and ever other demo deceiver promting immorality and convenience killing of babies moments before birth.
Innocent human beings are killed in abortion procedures and killed after being born whole and healthy. The infanticide of our country is despicable and a heinous indictment against our country.
As a nation, we have abandoned the God of the Bible and his will for mankind.
That’s what I think Trump was not prepared enough to have his points out clearly
Gloria,
I fully agree.
I can’t imagine Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or RFK jr. would have lost a debate to such an intellectual charlatan as Kamala Harris. Yet, somehow Donald Trump managed to.
Remember Tulsi Gabbard’s take down of Harris in 2020? Come on Donald. Get your (blank) together, me old son.
Because he didn’t prepare. Tulsi made herself available, but he blew her off. He underestimated just how evil this woman really is.
The next debate should be JDVance against Harris, Tim Walz and ever other demo deceiver promting immorality and convenience killing of babies moments before birth.
The media performance by ABC Muir and Davis is nothing new. It was expected by the audience, Trump, and Harris. It’s been going on since 2016 – so that’s 8 years now. Some of the faces have changed , but the MO has not changed and the media anti-Trump rhetoric has only ramped up.
I do have a problem with ABC profiteering from the debate while influencing elections. They should not be making money from influencing elections.
Harris was detestable. Her mocking facial expressions while Trump was talking would have earned her a deserved solid punch in the snoot had she been male – but I guess women are exempt from such things, and therefore feel they can get away with anything.
Most importantly, Harris did not answer a single question. She knows her agenda is not acceptable to the the public, so she cannot truthfully answer any question about it.
It’s not up to Trump to get himself elected. It’s up to us. We know what the stakes are. The sooner we get to work, instead of critiquing his campaign style, the better.
The only thing that could make Trump win is if enough people care about the economy to vote. I don’t think it’s possible that enough people care about any other crucial differences between the two candidates governing motivations to make a difference in the outcome of this election.
For inexplicable reasons, President Trump winged it through this critical debate. We know he’s extremely capable and have to assume he was well prepared, but was he? He could have and should have had in mind a valid constructive sincere response for all the wormy hostile questions and manipulation by the so-called moderators and his opponent. The lies and “when did you stop beating your wife?” type questions could have been totally finessed, and didn’t require phony canned evasions like Harris consistently spouted. There are so many examples, for instance the January 6 question. He could have said his only regret was that he did not more strenuously insist on the National Guard presence, even though not his decision; he could have gone on to talk more generally about the importance of election integrity in all our elections. Crafting and anticipating delivery of a good and sincere answer beforehand to all likely topics is what debate preparation is for. And even with respect to the the utterly cheap, unfunny false allegation that his rallies are boring, he could have said yeah really boring, with shooting and good people getting killed. I could see him giving so many responses like that If he had just kept his cool and been ready.
The Harris handlers, preppers, script writers, and image makers behind her are far far more cunning, manipulative and unscrupulous (but capable) than imagined. It’s very foolish and dangerous to underestimate them.
Good suggestions for Trump’s responses. A lot could have been said, and I agree that he can take just one salient point and elaborate and make it stick for the length of the time allotment.
Trump is an excellent and entertaining speaker at his rallies but needs to extent those skills to hostile and undecided audiences.
Trump has gone through perhaps eight years of unwarranted criticism and lawfare. He may be worn down by all the lies and subversion. It is hard to be misunderstood and unjustly attacked. Under his circumstances especially, it is very trying.
Let’s face it, he was unprepared and she clearly anticipated (or knew) the questions in advance and was scripted with answers — possibly even tested on secret panel — which she memorized and regurgitated like an actress when her button was pushed. There is no way those “lines” were extemporaneous.
So, despite the pleas of so many of his supporters to take the debate seriously and prepare, he decided to blow them off and wing it. Why did he have Tulsi as a prep helper? I’m sure she would not have recommended going in unprepared. (We’ll probably find out he blew her suggestions off as well.)
I certainly hope he hasn’t lost the election due to his ego. This one is too important for America.
Agreed, Harris’ answers were so well rehearsed that it seemed like she knew what the questions would be.
Henry Burroughs, you are SPOT ON! If Trump changes his mind about a second debate, he could sorely use someone like you to keep him on track! (Of course, that will not happen.) Your remarks re the rally response would have stopped even the “moderators” in their tracks. Thanks for your valuable, original insight!!
Spot on assessment.
Regarding the debate I would suspect that ABC leaked the questions to Harris team. That between Harris and the Moderators there were back room actions in play to prepare her and them.
A commentator noted that ABC moderators performance was being discussed post debate. Compared to no real post debate comments with bash and tapper after trump vs Biden debate.
One thing I noted never once did Trump look at Harris while she did with this condescending smirk. Like some high school freshman. It was not a executive leaders look.
It’s a pity that he was expected to trounce her and she was expected to fall flat on her face and because that didn’t happen he lost and she won to too many.
She knows what buttons to push on the opposite sex and she did that. She’ll have no such luck with Xi, Putin etc. especially the new Right wing people in Europe.
Agreed, we are in greater peril worldwide with Harris and democrats in general. Dictator and ally response to Harris may be similar to their response to Joe Biden, someone that they can take advantage of.
I am concerned that several generations later, after acute exposure to a corrupted U.S. K-12 & University, emotional, & easily influenced “Swifties”, raised on hatred of western civ, capitalism, the patriarchy, the U.S. as founded, and men in general, could throw this election, and our VERY fragile republic to Harris.
Yes, it is all accumulating, especially in the younger generations which have not been taught truth but social activism and an anti-American worldview.
Humanly, I am trying to help those I know with good information, but the teaching of our culture is strong. I suspect that the roots of our disfunction are spiritual – we have collectively abandoned God and that there are consequences.
Trump should have known he was walking into an ambush. But as soon as Harris brought out the old Charlottesville lie, unchecked, Trump should have called out the charade as a pathetic insult to the intelligence of voters, and just before walking off, say he’s still open to doing a legitimate debate.
Walking off stage would have made an impact like women athletes refusing to compete against men in drag.
Trump also could give a simple and calm clarification of the lie, remind the audience that these lies are repetitive and intentional, and persuade the voter that his opponents need to smear him in order to win elections.
In general, misbehaving children are delt with more graciously than if it were an adult or teenager. Perhaps, it would be advantageous for Trump to treat his adversaries as he would a small child so that clarifications could be made, and voters could be informed more properly.
I find the comments left, up to this point, naive.
No person preparing Donald Trump for that debate could have predicted, as VDH said, the shameless biases of Muir and Davis.
Donald Trump was ganged up on by three people who most likely collaborated- yes Harris was in on all of it, using the same rhetoric that caused a young misfit’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Anyone who thinks JD Vance or Ron DeSantis would have shredded Harris, doesn’t have a clear understanding of the effect such actions as those taken by the moderators, can directly affect the behavior of anyone in a negative, angry, and confused way.
Just two days after the debate, all anyone with common sense is talking about is the performance of Muir and Davis, “regrettably” not career-ending (how things have changed since 2012).
It also appears the warnings by The Republicans to scrutinize Harris on her flip-flopping is starting to happen.
VDH it seems like your words in the last paragraph of your essay might prove to be very propfectic.
“They sought to warp a debate, disgraced their network, and offered a good reminder why such media “moderators” should never be allowed anywhere near presidential debates.”
I agree with your thoughts. I’ve not seen so much second-guessing since Bobby Cox put in Charlie Liebrant to pitch in game 7 of the 1991 World Series, the Atlanta Falcons losing the Super Bowl after being up 28-3 in the third quarter. It’s so easy to say he should have done this or that. The folks saying that are never the ones in the arena fending off the lions trying to eat them.
Finally a reasonable comment, as opposed to simping for DeSantis and Haley. It’s always Trump’s fault to the greedy, jealous and preening boomercons. If DeSantis/Haley are so “conservative” and competent, then why aren’t they the candidate. Sour grapes at play. Let’s see, 8 years of lies, political prosecution and persecution, 2 sham impeachments, a stolen election, intelligence community coup, an assassination attempt possibly orchestrated by the current administration…yet Trump “wasn’t prepared”, “grouchy”, etc? Pathetic and petty sniping at a demonstrably better man that has withstood the crushing weight of the Establishment. These armchair presidential advisors on the failed boomercon right make me want to puke. With friends like these…
As she delivered her first remarks, Harris’ mouth was dry as evidenced by the smacking sound. This happened one or two more times during the “debate “. This is a sign she was knowingly lying, and I was surprized to see it right out of the gate.
It was truly a pile on by the ABC moderators and Harris. I think it is too simplistic to say that Trump should have been prepared with rote answers. He may well have been. Trump was trying to calculate his responses, but he was getting pummeled, and all the while the fake smile routine was taunting him. It was a disgusting performance by those three, and this debate will be remembered by me for its lack of civility.
To a thinking individual., the analysis by VDH is as convincing as it can be.
Harris and the biased moderators had no substance to offer as opposed to President Trump.
The problem we face is that Marxist Democrats don’t even try to address this issue.
They manipulate to promote the alleged “innocence” of the anti-American ideological soup. The danger is hidden in the unknown level of naivety present in the way woke voters think. The ideological fervor can justify doubling up on what is damaging to our future as a nation. This election can become a frightening exam based on unknown level of stupidity among voters.
Theater complete with acting classes, and a script given to Harris ahead of time so she could practice her lines just as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama did. The left is great at this. In the end, we all lose.
Using only audio, Trump did well. Watching Harris’ expressions distracted me from listening to the merits of what Trump was saying.
To get an authentic appraisal of the debate may require audio only.
The Media is the problem. PERIOD!!!
They should be “exposing the TRUTH
NOT choosing sides in this election.
Theron Few
Unaffiliated in NC
Here are some suggestions for the moderators to promote a fair debate –
1. Give both candidates the questions in advance.
2. Read the first question aloud at the debate.
3. Direct the recipient to respond and then direct the opponent to respond.
3. Read the next question aloud and continuing the process until all the questions are addressed.
P.S. Victor Hanson, do want to promote this idea?
While I expect the absurd accusation that trump was a Putin puppet to come from Kamarla and her allies, I was astonished to see Steven Kotkin assert in a recent Hoover video that the reason Putin was singularly less aggressive under Trump (compared to Bush, Obama, and Biden) was “because Trump was giving him everything he wanted.” He didn’t elaborate but seemed to be saying it as though it was an obvious fact. I generally like hearing from Kotkin but was very surprises by this and am left wondering what on earth is his angle about this.
Also, not only do both candidates have the questions in advance to prepare for the debate but the American people do too so that they can think ahead of the candidates’ responses and then listen carefully when the debate happens.
P.S. Victor, what do you think? Would this help make the debates fair?
Besides the bias from ABC, and the three on one, the most noticeable point to me, was Harris prepared, and Trump winged it, stupidly assuming Harris was going to role over and die in the midst of her word salads. So many things Trump could have blasted her on, and simply didn’t.
Harris is doing a reprise of 2020 when Biden ran as moderate Uncle Joe from Scranton, then governed as a far left progressive. In doing the same thing (along with the Biden in the basement, and Harris doing no real interviews), she’ll likely do a reprise of running (sort of) directionally to the center and governing to the left of Bernie Sanders. Shame on Trump and his ego.
I agree with Dr. Hanson’s assessment. But there are some things that really bother me about Trump. His standing up there and telling me that he really won the last election. There were 60 law suits and his people claimed to have evidence of his claims but presented none in court or to the press to this day. He is either trying to intimidate everyone into agreeing with him or is simply detached from reality. Either is a big problem for me.
Further, he failed to explain his legal and evidentiary basis for directing Vice President Pence not to certify the election. It looks like he was attempting to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. This also is a big problem for me.
Finally, and in the same vane, the supporting of alternate electors without any basis in fact or law is concerning. This looks like a direct attack on subverting our elections. This is much worse than the lawfare efforts of the Dems to prosecute Trump. The Supreme Court is there to ultimately protect him from that abuse of power. This is a difference of degree, not kind.
The quantity of mail-in ballots and their historically low rejection rate for fraud is of much concern.
Perhaps, we should require in person balloting with verifying personal identification and paper ballots would help ensure that elections are freer from interference.
You know it was rigged , especially when Zuckerberg
Finally admitted to 400 million to rig the election
And he’s not doing it this time ……..
He just one who paid for rigging , Soros , hasting, and on & on
Biden won by 42,000 votes but can we ever know they were real
The legal wins are at the State level, where in Oct. 2020, undemocratic SoS’s violated election laws to subvert the State Legislature’s sole authority to set, e.g., signature verification standards. In MI, at issue were two million Abs. Ballots. The judge ruled against the SoS but did not invalidate the 2020 Abs. Ballots. Those ABs should have been audited one by one, but they were not.
Similarly, in AZ, the SoS perpetrated the same chicanery with a relatively similar outcome. GA, PA, & WI also had their operatives exposed as, IMO, knowingly complicit in deception.
Thanks for adding to detail to the issue of absentee ballots and the necessity to validate them.
In the 2000, 2004 and 2016 elections, the Democrat party did the same thing; they contested those elections. The overwhelming lawsuits brought for the 2020 election declared they did NOT have standing and the evidence was not presented. If you do some research you might be surprised to understand that in 2020 there were lots and lots of issues with ballots. Ballots not being signed (verified) and or coming in days later after the election and being accepted. If you go to: here is the evidence dot com you can see just the statistical data was and is alarming.
Thanks for the historical precedent of the Democrat party and corroborating the problem of absentee ballots.
That election WAS RIGGED! Why did they count the votes in secret? Why hasn’t Mark Zuckerberg been arrested for ELECTION INTERFERENCE? Why were thousands of ballots disposed of by mail carriers, & nothing was done about it. And why are you jumping on Trump & not saying a word about Harris? What about her woke & communistic beliefs? What about all the lies she was allowed to get away with. That debate was ELECTION INTERFERENCE in itself.
I would like to note that Kamala Harris is an ambitious person and she is a politician, so she will do what any ambitious politician will seek to do: win, above all. This means she is an agnostic, and will defer to the apparat and fixers who hold the keys to the kingdom. The writer Lionel Shriver in a recent edition of the UK magazine “The Spectator” elaborates on who these key-holders are, who “they” are, and what they seem to value. Sobering:
“At this point, it’s hardly paranoid to accept that there is a “they:” the same people who’ve controlled the Biden administration from day one. They’re obsessed with race, captivated by radical gender ideology, in love with racial quotas, blindly devoted to self-harming net zero, festive about open borders and oblivious to pitching trillions down a rathole with borrowed money. Long a genuine centrist, Biden lurched wildly left as president. You needn’t be able to see a strong wind to infer from a bent tree that it’s being subjected to a powerful force.”
We are so screwed.
Agreed
Some observations on the debate.
1. Trump needs to let go of the 2020 election and get it behind him.
2. The same applies to Jan. 6.
3. The Trump abortion ban. So many people don’t seem to understand that Trump couldn’t ban abortion even if he wanted to, and he doesn’t want to. The Supreme Court gave the power to regulate abortion back to the states and the states are allowing voters to determine the regulations.
4. Trump did not prep well.
It is worth noting that the day after the “debate”, Governor DeWine of Ohio sent help to the citizens of Springfield, Ohio. I find it unsettling that no one in Springfield ever asked the question, “What are we going to do with all these new people in town?”
I keep thinking about that mobile abortion clinic that the Democrats were promoting outside of their convention, presumably because they have nothing else to talk about. It was like something from Nazi Germany. All that was missing were pictures of smiling happy people painted on the side.
Any society that celebrates abortion on demand has forfeited its right to be called civilized.
Mr Nixon, 62 million abortions ,
30 million Blacks
32 million whites
They represent our middle class that is shrinking
At a rapid pace . Both blacks and whites will be
Minority people in 25 years .
We are screwed as a country
Mobile abortion clinics, transvestite rights, homosexual couples given marital status by the government. The country is asleep.
Hi Victor! I am a 28 year old man from Minnesota and have been enjoying your content for a couple of years now. You are a rare person in today’s society. The way you process and analyze current events in such a rational way is unmatched. Of course your historical perspective is just as prolific. I feel like I look around and see a world that is eroding from the inside out. Your voice has been a beacon for common sense and judicious reasoning in a time of mass hysteria. I just listened to your most recent podcast (9/12) where at the end you mentioned how you didn’t think you had a younger audience, and I just had to try to find a way to rebuke that (where you would see it). I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in your shoes. Just know that you are so greatly appreciated! The younger generations are craving the insight you bring to the world. Thank you for everything!!
Would have been ideal for Trump to have KO’d Kamala’s lies anf he should have been aware of what was coming. Still he faced 90 minutes of non-stop personal attacks from 3 opponents. I think most would have stumbled far worse than Trump. Plus he ended with one of the most concise and powerful statements of the campaign.
In spite of all the flowery language in support of Trump there may now be a crack in the veil that is keeping so many from seeing that the emperor has no clothes.
The real problem is Harris and the democrat political machine. The benefits of a Trump administration well exceed the alternative.
I hope we’re still able to vote in 2028 and Donald Trump is nowhere near the ballot. DeSantis 2028
God willing, DeSantis will have four years to prepare for the debates. Now is the time to rally behind Trump.
We need a different system in which more voices are heard. We are over 330 million and the 3rd most populated due to immigration. And we only have two choices, in effect only 2 recognized parties due to ballot laws and other things. We need a hero who is honest and will listen to both sides, is capable of sound governance.
Going in, Trump knew the moderators would be on Harris’ side. No excuse for being unable to control his temper. He blew SO MANY chances, it was painful to watch.
I agree, Ishabaka.
Thanks for the commentary VDH and I just learned today from Dan Bongino Ms Davis is Ms Harris’ sorority sister. No prejudice here!
As was posted on ‘X’ today:
“For better political debates, eliminate the moderators. Lincoln and Douglas didn’t need them in 1858. After a coin flip to start, candidates trade 15-minute argument, 10-minute rebuttal, 5-minute closing, with time warning then mic cut-off. One hour and bingo. Let viewers judge.”
Also, get rid of primaries, which encourage mindless slogan and gotcha contests, and return to registered-member-only party caucuses where party leaders have an incentive to select candidates who might actually appeal to a majority of voters and even win.
I didn’t understand the following: “When Trump frequently meandered off topic, the frowning moderators redirected him to answer the questions asked. Harris neither did nor was ever pressed to.” Neither did what? Never was pressed to do what? Harris dodged several questions.