Vice President Harris wins debate, shows ‘presidential’ skills against ex-president
In a presidential debate, you should never show up unprepared or, as Joe Biden did earlier this summer, under the weather and heavily medicated. Biden did both in the June 28th debate and it changed the whole trajectory of the 2024 Presidential race.
Fast forward to September 10th and the two adversaries for the second scheduled debate did not include Biden but Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. In a race that Democrats had just about written off after Biden’s June face plant, Harris ascension had suddenly jolted new life into a down and dejected party.
But if Trump expected a smackdown against Harris, he pulled ‘a Biden.’ Viewers saw a low energy candidate answer in half-truths, non sequiturs and, at other times, provable lies. By most accounts, even among Republicans, Harris won and easily.
One such Republican was retired grande dame Colorado legislator Norma Anderson. Anderson, who once led her party in both the Colorado House and Senate, called it for the Vice President. “Harris won,” she said bluntly. “She carried herself as presidential, he was unbalanced. All he could do is respond with lies.”
While a legend in Colorado politics, Anderson also has her name on a now famous United States Supreme Court ruling. Trump v Anderson, a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that only the federal government and not the states had standing to keep a presidential candidate off the ballot. Anderson and five other plaintiffs had sued to keep Trump of the state’s primary ballot for his part in the January 6th insurrection.
Anderson’s opinions of the ex-president, she said, were not only confirmed by his debate performance but for his long personal history, one replete with repeated dalliances with criminality.
“Back in the seventies, when no one was charged with discrimination, he and his father were.” Trump and his father were federally cited for discriminating against Black people wanting to rent Trump-owned apartments. The Trumps denied the charges but later signed off on an agreement that ended the case without having to admit guilt.
Anderson, who plans to vote for Harris in November, said she legitimately fears a second Trump presidency. “Where could I move,” she asked, only half-jokingly. “We would not have the same country.”
In citing her opposition to Trump, Anderson referred to his repeated promises to deport millions of immigrants. It might make him happy, Anderson acknowledged, but cause irreparable damage to countless lives along with that of the U.S. economy. “He’s had six bankruptcies. The U.S. would be number seven.”
Former Denver Mayor and Presidential Cabinet Secretary Federico Peña agreed that Trump lost the debate but worries that he still could win the presidency.
Peña was one of the loudest voices opposing Trump when he ran for president in 2016. Perhaps his biggest objection to Trump was the Queens tycoon’s unbridled anti-Mexican slurs on the day of his announcement.
“When Mexico sends its people,” Trump said in launching his campaign, “they’re sending people with lots of problems…they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
“We now all see that he will act on his bias,” said Peña. “We will have the most dramatic assault on the Latino community in my lifetime.” Trump has made no secret of his almost visceral disdain of undocumented immigrants whose numbers he says are populated with criminals, cartel members, terrorists and the mentally ill.
The Heritage Foundation authored Project 2025, which Trump has denied knowing anything about but has also acknowledged it in speeches, clearly maps out a plan for the mass removal of undocumented.
Trump, said Peña, often clumsily masks his contempt for immigrants by going right to the edge of candor only to switch direction. When asked directly about his plans, Peña says Trump equivocates or simply “doesn’t answer the question.” In recent days, Trump has traveled with and been photographed with one of his most virulent anti- immigrant voices and supporters.
It is impossible to predict if Trump can execute his planned mass deportation. But Peña says the promise he makes at his rallies are almost unthinkable and not just for immigrants. Can you imagine, Peña asks, being stopped and asked for documentation. “They will stop me, stop you. How do you prove (citizenship) that on the sidewalk?”
Trump, who rarely backs away from bombast, again told reporters in Los Angeles on Friday that “We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country…and we’re going to start with Springfield (Ohio) and Aurora (Colorado).” The two cities have recently been in the news over immigrant issues. Fact checking, however, proved that Trump’s description of each has been factually wrong or overstated.
But Denver’s first Latino mayor suspects that it is not so much the office of President that fuels Trump’s desires. He guesses it’s something a lot more compelling. “He’s running primarily to stay out of jail.”
Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies in a New York court case and sentencing is scheduled for November 28th. Each of the felonies in his ‘hush money’ case carries up to a $5,000 fine and four-year prison sentence.
Peña, who served in President Clinton’s cabinet overseeing energy and transportation, said the nation needs a steady hand and Harris provides one. “If there was any doubt,” he said, her debate performance removed them.
In the two months since Harris became her party’s standard bearer, enthusiasm and fundraising have skyrocketed. Polling shows that deficits Biden could not overcome have taken on a new trajectory. Many now have Harris tied with or leading Trump, including those in crucial swing states.
Harris, who has encountered standing room only crowds at her post debate rallies, has hammered the ex-president and his long-standing opposition to the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Trump, she said, had four years in office to come up with something better. When debate moderators recently asked him if, after all this time, he has a plan to replace the ACA, Trump replied, “I have concepts of a plan.” Translation: No plan.
While there are still seven weeks remaining before the November 5th election, anything can happen. But Harris is smartly parlaying Trump’s ‘concept’ response into one of her rally’s best laugh lines as she reminds voters, especially younger women, that it was Trump who engineered the death of Roe and a women’s right to make her own health decisions.
While Harris and others have called on the ex-president for one more debate before the election, it appears the September 10th debate will be the last. Trump, who has spun his very dubious debate performance as a victory despite contrary opinions from party brand names, said there will be no more.
