Welcome to the post-debate edition of the From the Politics Desk newsletter, a recap of all the happenings surrounding tonight’s showdown between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
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Harris shakes up ‘angry’ Trump in debate as both candidates push for change
By Jonathan Allen and Peter Nicholas
PHILADELPHIA — Former President Donald Trump discovered Tuesday night that he now has a much stronger rival on his hands.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who won the Democratic nomination when President Joe Biden resigned after a disastrous debate performance in June, delivered aggressive attacks and coherent rebuttals. And she provoked Trump, who at one particularly heated moment became angry at her attempt to interrupt him — with some allies saying after the debate that he had lost control at a crucial moment.
“Wait a minute,” he scolded, his annoyance clear in his tone and facial expression. “I’m talking now. Do you mind? … Sound familiar?”
Laura Ingraham said on Fox News that Harris had “moved the betting markets a little bit.” Three Republican sources — a political operative, a Trump ally and a donor — described Trump as “angry” during the debate as Harris pushed his buttons and sidetracked him after questions about some of his key policies.
Another Trump fundraiser said Trump’s frustration was hampering his ability to carry out his own plans and the points he wanted to make, but he hoped voters would feel similar anger.
“Trump is so angry that he can’t get his message across clearly,” the Trump fundraiser said. “She’s cool, calm, and can provoke him. I was tense when I heard it.” But, the fundraiser noted, American voters “are stressed and angry. Maybe they can relate very well to Trump’s anger.”
Trump has had supporters on the edge of their seats during bad debate nights before, when he narrowly won the 2016 election and narrowly lost the 2020 election. But Trump, heartened this past week by somewhat more favorable public polling than he’s seen in recent memory, missed an opportunity to capitalize on his good personal vibes.
After Tuesday’s game, he approached reporters to criticize ABC News moderators and declare the night a win. He declined to answer questions about committing to a second debate, which Harris’ campaign challenged him to do in a statement earlier in the evening.
“The polls are very good, I have a very good feeling about it,” he said.
Read more from Jon and Peter →
The main conclusions from the Harris-Trump debate
By Sahil Kapur
Harris moves quickly to cut costs: Harris used the first question to underpin her plan for an “opportunity economy,” attempting to undermine Trump’s lead among swing voters by presenting herself as the middle-class candidate while calling Trump a corporate tax cut.
Harris defends policy changes: A key weakness for Harris in the campaign has been the left-wing positions she adopted as the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate but has since abandoned or backed away from, such as banning fracking, mandating buybacks of semi-automatic firearms and decriminalizing border crossings.
“I made it very clear in 2020, I will not ban fracking,” Harris said. “I did not ban fracking as vice president. In fact, I was the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened up new concessions for fracking,” an environmentally controversial way to extract oil and natural gas.
Harris added: “My values haven’t changed.”
Trump Dodges Veto of Federal Abortion Ban: Trump and Harris have been locked in a long-running conflict over abortion, with Trump twice refusing to say whether he would block a federal ban on abortion if Congress passed one.
“Well, I don’t have to do that,” Trump responded. He said he would “not sign” such a ban because “there’s no reason to,” and argued that “everybody” is happy with the end of Roe v. Wade.
Trump returns to Biden attacks: Trump’s performance included a wide range of attacks on Biden, who retreated after his disastrous debate performance against Trump in late June. He criticized Biden’s handling of classified documents, criticized him for opposing the Keystone XL pipeline and called Biden’s administration “the most divisive presidency in the history of our country.”
Read more from Sahil →
More coverage of the debate evening
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have any feedback — likes or dislikes — please email us at politicsnieuwsbrief@nbcuni.com
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
