Most analysts think Kamala Harris not only delivered a strong performance in the presidential debate Tuesday night but that she also goaded Donald Trump into losing his cool.
Political pundits say Harris, the Democratic candidate, put former President Trump uncharacteristically on the defensive.
“He’s a very difficult person to debate,” said Democratic strategist Dan Bryan. “I thought she handled him masterfully. Every time she laid out a trap, he took it; every time she laid out bait, he took it; he went off on wild insane tangents.”
“I think he showed that level of grievance that you could tell that he’s been under fire and … sort of wanted to get all of his grievances out,” said Sen. Mike Testa (R-Cumberland). “And I wish he would have focused on the border, which is the number one issue in every single poll.”
Trump again denied that he lost the 2020 election and refused to accept responsibility for the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill.
Republicans wanted to hear Trump challenge the Harris record on border security, on the economy and on the Biden administration’s foreign policy, including the war in Ukraine.
“The media wants to talk about scoring political points or debate points, which is really irrelevant to the issue here of the battleground states,” said New Jersey Republican State Committee Chair Bob Hugin. The debate won’t sway voters in swing states that will decide this election,” he said. “I think, I think the media will portray it as a great Kamala victory. So I think she did a very good job in the debate.”
New Jersey reliably votes Democratic in presidential elections. The question is if undecided and unaffiliated voters will reconsider their choices in down-ballot races?
“They don’t like Donald Trump, but they’re really upset with the Republican leadership who has at least tacitly given him … that support, that he’s allowed to be the leader of the Republican Party and they kind of turn a blind eye to his worst excesses,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
This could impact the race in the 7th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. is facing Democratic challenger Sue Altman, Murray said.
Activist Jeannine LaRue said the discussion of abortion provided the debate’s pivotal moment for Harris — “when she talked about our bodies, when she talked about reproductive freedom and that no one has the right to have say over a woman’s body.”
Trump refused to say whether he would sign a national abortion ban, noting Congress would never pass such a bill. Harris vowed to make reproductive health care legal.
