Kamala Harris and Donald Trump began with their talking points, and she threw the first punches.
Asked at the ABC debate by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis whether the country was better off than four years ago, the VP said she was "raised as a middle-class kid," wants to raise up those voters, she wants to tackle the housing shortage, and has a "passion" for small business. Trump’s plan, she said, was to cut taxes for his billionaire friends and big corporations.
DEBATE CHALLENGE: THE PRESSURE’S ON KAMALA AS SHE AND TRUMP TRADE FLIP-FLOP CHARGES
The former president started on the high road, talking about the tariffs he imposed on China.
But he soon resorted to personal attacks. "Everything she believed four years ago, she’s a Marxist."
And: "She hates Israel." If she wins, "Israel will not exist in two years."
Trump also said of Joe Biden, without substantiation, "He hates her. He can’t stand her."
Trump pushed a completely debunked rumor that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, "they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the pets." Muir said the city manager confirmed there were no such reports.
Trump looked angrier as the debate wore on, with Harris at one point laughing at him. She pivoted between looking at him and the cameras; he barely glanced at her.
"We did a phenomenal job with the pandemic," Trump said, which is, well, debatable.
Harris grew most animated when asked about abortion, and declared that Trump would sign a national abortion ban.
HOW TRUMP, OR KAMALA, COULD WIN, AS ALL SIDES ZERO IN ON THE DEBATE
"You’re going to hear a bunch of lies," the veep said. Pregnant women were being denied emergency care, a 12-year old survivor of incest was forced to carry the baby to term.
Trump said, as he did to me at Mar-a-Lago, that "every legal scholar" wanted the abortion issue returned to the states. That is not true.
Trump said the Democrats are the radicals because they support abortion through the ninth month, and quoted a dumb comment by the former Virginia governor about making a decision after birth, which is illegal.
"This is so rich by someone who has been found liable for sexual assault," Harris said, referring to the E. Jean Carroll case and rattling off various indictments.
That’s because the administration has "weaponized" law enforcement against him, Trump said in an oft-repeated charge. He added, without substantiation, "They’re the ones who made them go after me."
In another charge without evidence, the ex-president accused Harris of "paying people" to attend her rallies.
Referring to the attempted assassination, Trump said, "I probably took a bullet to the head because of their rhetoric." Then he said "Russia Russia Russia" – the kind of shorthand that may have puzzled casual viewers.
Harris also said things that weren’t true. She said she made clear in 2020 that she was not against fracking, but what she actually said was that Biden would not ban fracking. She said he had threatened a "bloodbath" if he loses, but he actually said that about the American auto industry.
TRUMP, KAMALA AIMING FOR THE MIDDLE WITH VARYING DEGREES OF SUCCESS
ABC pressed Trump about Jan. 6, asking why he didn’t make the video earlier asking protestors to go home. He said what was left out was that in his speech he had asked the demonstrators to be "peaceful and patriotic."
Harris countered that Trump had "incited a violent mob" in which 150 law enforcement officials were injured, and "some died."
ABC did press Harris on her past opposition to fracking and for abolishing private health insurance, but she stuck to varying versions of "my values haven’t changed."
On another crucial issue, ABC asked twice: "Do you want Ukraine to win this war?" Trump would not say yes. "I want the war to stop," he said. "I think it’s in the U.S.’s best interest to get this war done, negotiate a deal."
Harris responded: "If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now." She said she met with Volodomyr Zelenskyy days before the invasion to share U.S. intelligence.
My scorecard:
Kamala Harris did everything she could have reasonably done to brush off Trump’s attacks, make her case, and repeatedly attack him while largely maintaining her composure.
Trump turned in a strong performance and landed numerous blows, but Harris increasingly got under his skin rather than the other way around.
ABC tilted against Trump, with a series of tougher questions, more followups, more fact-checking, and more corrections by the network. This vindicated Trump’s pregame criticism of ABC as the "meanest" network.
Now the partisan spinning gets under way in earnest.
