Hello,
Before the debate, the conventional wisdom was that to have a strong night, Donald Trump needed to remain focused on tying Kamala Harris to the Biden administration’s unpopular record on the economy, immigration, and foreign policy, and avoid minefields on his weakest issues — abortion and democracy. And he also needed to avoid getting sidetracked on rants or conspiracy theories.
But he mostly failed to do those things, senior correspondent Andrew Prokop writes in an analysis of the debate’s biggest winners and losers.
Trump repeatedly voiced ludicrous-sounding conspiracy theories about immigrants eating cats and dogs or states executing babies after they are born. As Vox senior correspondent Zach Beauchamp explains, Harris further amplified the effect by successfully goading Trump on his biggest sensitivities. Each time, Trump took the bait — losing control of his temper and going off-message, while Harris looked on what must have been glee.
Harris brought up world leaders calling him a “disgrace,” pushing him into bragging about his relationship with Hungarian “strongman” (in Trump’s words) Viktor Orbán, perhaps not a callout that the swing voters of Michigan, Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania were clamoring for.
The vice president, on the other hand, surprised some when she rebutted Trump’s claim that she wanted to take people’s guns away, stating that she and her running mate Tim Walz are both gun owners themselves. Some also may have been surprised by her defense of fracking.
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Today, senior reporter Christian Paz and senior correspondent Eric Levitz broke down last night’s debate in a conversation exclusively for Vox Members. Join today to read their biggest takeaways from last night’s event. And don’t forget that Vox Members get more access to our newsroom and conversations like this all year long.
