Race for White House: Confident Kamala puts Trump on the back foot

Kamala Harris' direct stare, confident body language and frankly incredulous expression at his statements put paid to intimidation of the kind Donald Trump inflicted on Hillary Clinton in 2016

Until fresh polling numbers appear, it is unclear who will win the White House in November. But after the only presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour to run for the office, Ms Harris emerged the clear winner. Sixty-three per cent of debate watchers in CNN’s poll thought Ms Harris won, as did 23 of 25 undecided swing-state voters in a Washington Post focus group. Even Republican commentators, including those on Fox News, admitted as much. Erasing memories of Joe Biden’s shambolic performance in June, Ms Harris came out swinging from the get-go, stalking across the stage to shake hands with an opponent almost a foot taller and 19 years older. This is the first time that candidates have shaken hands since the 2016 debate. Her direct stare, confident body language and frankly incredulous expression at his statements put paid to intimidation of the kind Mr Trump inflicted on Hillary Clinton in 2016. Most of all, Ms Harris leveraged her prosecutorial experience to needle Mr Trump on multiple hot-button issues and keep him on the defensive.

On abortion, on which he has gained unpopularity for his crude pro-life positions, he took pride in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade but refused to commit to approving a nationwide abortion ban and was fact-checked by the ABC anchors for claiming that babies were being subjected to “executions” after birth. His response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters was to blame then Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not mobilising security, though Capitol security was not her responsibility. Hilariously, he repeated the unfounded accusation that undocumented immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, killed and ate pets, for which the ABC anchors fact-checked him again. On the Affordable Care Act, he was forced to admit that he didn’t have a replacement plan. And on Afghanistan, Ms Harris reminded him that his decisions to invite the Taliban to Camp David and to allow their fighters back created the conditions for Mr Biden’s decision to withdraw.

Ms Harris’ energy and chutzpah obscured her inconsistencies on a range of issues, including the role of private insurance in Affordable Care, and the ban on fracking. She spoke convincingly of having plans to help aspirational Americans and erase divisive politics without offering too many details. On foreign policy, her positions on the Russia-Ukraine war and attempt to square the circle on the Israel-Palestine issue are puzzling. She may also have confused the Great Depression and the Great Recession in her assessment of Mr Trump’s record on employment. Nevertheless, her emphatic reminder that Mr Trump was running against her, not Mr Biden, enabled her to side-step responsibilities for her boss’ administration. After a national convention at which she was endorsed by three former Presidents and two first ladies and delivered an electrifying speech, Ms Harris came into the debate with a small lead of 47 per cent to Mr Trump’s 43 per cent, though she gained marginally in four of the seven battleground states where Mr Biden was trailing. These numbers were ascribed to the fact that she was an unknown quantity to the average American. Her debate performance would have changed that. This time, it is Mr Trump’s age and mental fitness that are being questioned.