Kamala Harris delivers strong performance against Trump

To the delight of South Asians, newly minted Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris delivered a strong performance in her first debate Tuesday night against Donald Trump, often putting her Republican rival on the defensive.

In sharp contrast to Joe Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate against Trump that forced the President to drop out in her favor, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, both immigrants, outperformed the former president by most accounts.

Flashing her prosecutorial skills, a combative Harris clashed fiercely with Trump on abortion and the economy, immigration and the war in Ukraine in a 90-minute debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia.

“The contrast was apparent even on mute. She smiled. He glowered. He spoke more, but she dictated the terms of the evening,” as the New York Times summed it up.

“Harris took on Donald Trump and delivered a powerful, clear-eyed vision of what America can be – one that works for all of us, not just the privileged few,” said Indian American Impact, a leading community political advocacy organization, after the debate.

“Her performance wasn’t just a victory for the campaign–it was a victory for us all,” it said reminding South Asians that debates alone won’t decide this election.

“It’s going to come down to the votes, especially in key battleground states. The time of landslide victories are long gone,” Impact stated. “Our community, the South Asian American diaspora has the potential to be the deciding factor in this race–we must show up.”

READ: ‘One of Our Own’: Kamala Harris’ ascension sparks AANHPI community celebration (July 26, 2024)

“With the South Asian American growing in number and influences, we have the ability to make the difference in getting Kamala Harris and other champions for our community the win in November,” it said adding it’s working hard in key battleground states to mobilize South Asian voters.

During the debate, Harris baited Trump most of the time telling the former president that world leaders were laughing at him, and military leaders called him a “disgrace.”

She called Trump “weak” and “wrong.” She said Trump was fired by 81 million voters – the number that voted for Biden in 2020. “Clearly, he’s having a very difficult time processing that,” she said.

Trump was often out of control. He loudly and repeatedly insisted that a whole host of falsehoods were true. He also repeated lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. He parroted a conspiracy theory about immigrants eating pets and lied about Democrats supporting abortions after babies are born.

He painted a dire picture of the United States, reminiscent of the “American carnage” he’d warned of when he was inaugurated in 2017. “We have a nation that is dying,” Trump said Tuesday night.

As the debate ended, Harris got another boost: Musician and pop culture icon Taylor Swift posted on Instagram that she was backing the Democratic ticket. She signed her post “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady” — a reference to controversial comments by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, that have alienated many women.

Seeking to introduce herself to voters, Harris set the tone early, drawing contrast with Trump by framing herself as an advocate for middle-class Americans – and framing her opponent as self-absorbed.

“Donald Trump has no plan for you,” Harris said in response to a question on the economy, looking into the camera in a direct appeal to voters.

Leaning into her personal biography as she cast herself as a “middle-class kid,” Harris outlined an economic vision including tax cuts for families and tax deductions for small businesses, while Trump, she said, will “do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations.”

Trump, Harris continued, “actually has no plan for you, because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.”

Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate broadly agree that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump, according to a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS.

The vice president also outpaced both debate watchers’ expectations for her and Joe Biden’s onstage performance against the former president earlier this year, the poll found.

Debate watchers said, 63% to 37%, that Harris turned in a better performance onstage in Philadelphia. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would perform more strongly, with 50% saying Harris would do so and 50% that Trump would.

And afterward, 96% of Harris supporters who tuned in said that their chosen candidate had done a better job, while a smaller 69% majority of Trump’s supporters credited him with having a better night.

Voters who watched the debate also left with improved views of Harris compared with their impressions pre-debate, while few changed their opinions of Trump overall.

Their views of each candidate’s strengths on the issues continued to reflect the dynamics seen in national polling, with Trump holding an advantage on the economy, immigration and being commander in chief, and Harris more trusted on abortion and protecting democracy.

The vast majority who tuned in said it had no effect on their presidential decision, although, among the debate watchers, Trump supporters were more likely than Harris supporters to say the event gave them reason to reconsider.