\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump<\/strong> was upset. He was supposed to be talking about immigration, the subject he\u2019d been trying to bring up for the entire first half-hour of the debate. But his opponent, Kamala Harris<\/strong>, had just savaged his bizarre rants about Hannibal Lecter and brought up the fact that more of his followers seem to be leaving rallies early. \u201cLet me respond about the rallies,\u201d he told David Muir<\/strong> and Linsey Davis<\/strong>, who very capably co-moderated the debate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the biggest rallies,\u201d he insisted, his voice getting louder, his speech getting quicker, breaking from the comparatively subdued tone he had tried to strike for the first stretch of the proceeding. When he finally wended his way back to immigration, it was to amplify an extraordinarily racist, baseless, and conspiratorial meme about Haitian immigrants, which his Ohio running mate, JD Vance<\/strong>, had promoted earlier: \u201cThey\u2019re eating the pets of the people that live there!\u201d he yelled.<\/p>\n When Muir pointed out that the lie had been debunked, Trump responded, breathlessly, that he heard it from \u201cthe people on television.\u201d He sounded pathetic. Harris\u2014who\u2019d been squinting at him in disbelief, as she had much of the evening\u2014just laughed. She\u2019d brought out the real Donald Trump.<\/p>\n The debate Tuesday was a lot different than the one in June<\/a>: Trump had lied and obfuscated his way through that one, too, but all that was overshadowed by President Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s awful performance. It was perhaps the most consequential debate in modern history, effectively ending Biden\u2019s reelection bid. Will ABC News\u2019 debate in Philadelphia have such an impact? Likely not\u2014mostly because the people who already buy Trump\u2019s bullshit are too far gone, and it remains to be seen how many swing voters will make their decisions based on a single debate.<\/p>\n But still, what a change.<\/p>\n Where Biden struggled to counter Trump\u2019s familiar fare three months ago, Harris got the former president on his heels about a quarter of the way in\u2014repeatedly flustering him and baiting him into spewing some of the strange, grotesque invective he normally reserves for a warmer audience. \u201cThey\u2019ve destroyed the fabric of our country,\u201d he insisted of Biden and Harris, before once again relitigating his 2020 election loss. Asked whether he acknowledged his defeat, Trump responded, \u201cI don\u2019t acknowledge it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n More importantly, Harris made a compelling case to the electorate for herself as the next president of the United States\u2014showing poise, distinguishing her command of actual policy from her opponent\u2019s vacuous improvisations, and speaking to the issues facing actual Americans. \u201cYou will not hear him talk about you,\u201d Harris said, speaking directly to the camera. \u201cIt is important that we move forward, that we turn the page on this same old tired rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n That rhetoric, from Trump, was outrageous even by his standard. Yes, there was his oft-repeated lie about Democrats supporting abortion after nine months\u2014which is actually already prohibited by an obscure legal statute called \u201cmurder\u201d\u2014during an exchange on reproductive rights that will require very little editing for the Harris advertising team. And he repeated a bigoted barb questioning Harris\u2019s racial background, which was as appalling on Tuesday night as it was when he debuted it<\/a> at a conference of Black journalists in Chicago in July. But his failed attempts to steer the conversation to immigration were especially egregious: \u201cThey\u2019re eating the dogs,\u201d he said of Haitian immigrants. \u201cThe people that came in, they\u2019re eating the cats.\u201d It was outright fascist\u2014a point underscored by Trump using his podium time to once praise strongman Viktor Orban<\/strong> of Hungary and to tout his relationship with Vladimir Putin<\/strong> of Russia, the dictator he bragged about knowing \u201cvery well.\u201d<\/p>\n He tried to look tough, to fearmonger. But as he spent the night hunched over his podium\u2014his beady eyes glowering, talking loudly about something he saw on TV\u2014he just looked desperate. \u201cDonald Trump was fired by 81 million people,\u201d Harris said at one point. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously having trouble processing that.\u201d Trump, of course, had little meaningful to say on policy; at one point, talking about healthcare, the best he could offer was a promise to later reveal \u201cconcepts of a plan.\u201d In essence, he just didn\u2019t have anything to offer to an America that is already painfully familiar with his \u201cAmerican carnage\u201d narrative: \u201cWe\u2019re a failing nation,\u201d he whined at one point.<\/p>\n Hasn\u2019t it all just become so tired by now, after eight years under the shadow of Trump? \u201cLet\u2019s turn the page,\u201d Harris said in the debate, \u201cand move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n