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Tuesday night’s presidential debate was expected to be one of the most consequential presidential debates, but it fell flat all the way around and some of the reasons were the moderators’ questions, the pettiness by the vice-president and the lack of policy clarity that Americans are demanding. 

It was the second presidential debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle, the first debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first time a second presidential debate with a switch-in presidential candidate and the first time Trump and Harris were ever in the same room. It was also the first time a former president debated a sitting vice president. In some ways, it was just historical because of the musical chairs switch from June 27 to September 10 when Donald Trump debated Joe Biden. 

With the two candidates close in some battleground state polls, and just under two months until Election Day, the stakes were high on the Philadelphia stage. 

The debate started on a relatively cordial note with Trump and Harris shaking hands, but ended with each nominee walking off stage in opposite directions. 

The split screen body language throughout the debate was overly animated by Harris while Trump showed a stern look at times. Harris would toss her head back looking up at the former president as he spoke, squint her eyes with distain, smirk, speak over him, and a couple of times pull her hand to her face and just nod at her opponent, or shake her head with disgust. It may have been one of the worst debate performances by a women in politics because it was so staged and far more emotional than showing statesmanship. If this was the night Harris was to introduce herself to America and put forth policies to gain those undecided voters, it was way too emotional theatre. 

For all of her rhetoric about looking forward, she seemed to do alot of homework to add insults to answers that were not informative about the questions she was asked.  

As for the former president, he seemed rattled at times by Harris’ continued personal attacks, demanded that he be given a chance to respond, and for all that is in Harris’ background, Donald Trump was Donald Trump but he hardly dug into Harris’ personal life the way that Harris jabbed Trump. At one point, when Harris spoke over him, he threw her a zinger she had used in prior debate, “Excuse me, I’m talking.” 

The moderators picked obvious topics seemingly from the polls - economy, border, Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Gaza, abortion, but left out more obvious questions on the minds of voters. 

There were no questions on a possible repeat of another coronavirus. No one asked about mandated masks and mandated vaccinations. There was no mention of the Biden-Harris Administration throwing the entire federal government behind LGBTIQ+ with a June 2022 executive order, which is an historical precedent in and of itself. That alone has led to a change in transgender policy that includes but is not limited to handing out puberty blockers and pushing transgender operations on children without parental knowledge or permission. There was no mention that some puberty blockers have FDA black box warnings of blindness. There was no mention of vascular and neurological injuries connected to covid shots. 

There was a lot of blame bouncing back and forth between the candidates. 

Economy 

Harris claimed that she was going to have a plan of lifting people up to serve the “ambition and aspirations and dreams” of America. Whatever that means? It was just political palaver. 

She called her economic plan an “opportunity economy.” She claimed that she was going to focus on affordable housing, a $6K child tax credit and $50K tax deduction to start small businesses. And, then Harris started attacking Trump over a sales tax which Trump denied. Harris also attacked Trump for tariffs and brought up Project 2025, which Trump has repeatedly stated he has nothing to do with. 

A lost moment in the debate when Harris brought Project 2025, Trump should have reminded the audience that the Biden Harris Administration has embraced the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 and that the Biden Harris is working to put the U.S. health sovereignty under the auspices of the World Health Organization, but that institution never came up in a question or a remark. 

Trump called the Biden Harris administration a “terrible economy” - a “disaster for every class” with immigrants coming to America “taking jobs from hispanics and African Americans” and “immigrants taking over towns.” 

Harris said that when Biden and she came to power they had to “clean up the mess” left behind again mentioning Project 2025. 

Harris got defensive and started using other parties for her name-calling during the debate. At times it was onerous. First, she claimed that Goldman Sachs and some at Wharton Business School thought Trump’s economic plan was bad and would invite a recession. Then Harris pivoted to an insult stating that Trump has “no plan for you” as she turned to the camera. Trump flipped that around and said that Harris copied Biden’s economic plan because she has no plan. 

Trump went in for the kill and said that the Biden Harris administration “destroyed” the economy. 

Harris shot back with “Trump sold American chips to China - sold us out,” when in reality that was false. She then claimed Trump praised President Xi of China over covid. Hardly, the full picture. Trump praised him in early 2020 but proceeded to slam China calling covid the “Wuhan pandemic” or “CHIINNAA pandemic" and that never flipped back to a praise from early 2020 going forward. 

Then Trump swung the bat at Harris. 

“She is a Marxist. Her Father is a Marxist professor.” 

That was a moment when Harris put her hand up to her chin and gave Trump a stern look. 

ABORTION 

The gloves came further off when it came to abortion. Harris is now blaming Trump for the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade. Trump called the democrats “radical” on this issue and defended the court’s ruling to throw the issue back to the states to decide.

“This issue has torn this country apart,” said the former president. 

Harris said she will gladly sign a bill and get Roe v. Wade ruling on a national agenda. 

Trump compared that notion to taunting students with student loan forgiveness that was deemed too far by the courts. In other words, Trump was accusing Harris of dangling a carrot before the voters. When asked if she had any restrictions on abortion, Harris made it clear - same as Roe v. Wade. Then she accused Trump of being against IVF treatments, which Trump denied and reminded her how he came out publicly in favor of IVF treatment when the Alabama issue was front and center in the news. 

“I have been a leader on IVF,” said Trump. 

IMMIGRATION and BORDER SECURITY 

Immigration was expected to be on the list. It is a high concern for Americans. Harris took shots at Trump for blocking a congressional bill while Trump shot right back telling her she could go back to the nation’s capitol right now and "shut the border." The Biden Harris administration did not need a congressional bill to close the border. 

Then Harris jumped back to “dreams and aspirations” as if this was a cheerleading try-out in high school and brought up 200 Republican endorsing her including the Cheneys as if anyone would care. 

Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants if he wins this election. Harris touted her experience as a prosecutor of a border state and promised to revive the bipartisan border security bill, but took no responsibility for the fact that she is vice-president in an administration that has never had this level of illegal immigration numbers ever in U.S. history.

The candidates discussed fracking, and by the time, David Muir asked Trump about January 6, Harris was prepared for her response. She lowered the boom and brought up tiki-torches in Charlottesville and Proud Boys. 

Trump reminded the audience of what happened in cities in 2020 asking when the looters in Seattle and Minneapolis were going to be prosecuted? He also reminded Americans that he went to then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Mayor in D.C. offering 10,000 national guard before Jan. 6. 

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As the night went on, when Harris would hit the punch card for insults, it almost seemed too petty to come from a candidate at the top of a presidential ticket. It is seemed too much like high school pettiness. 

Did Harris use the debate to introduce herself and lay out her policies? No. 

Did Trump use the debate to remind the audience enough that they were better off under Trump administration than under the Biden Harris administration? No. 

Did the moderators ask enough questions that pertain to the kitchen tables issues across America? No. 

The debate was slinging arrows and that is not what America needs at this point. 

Moments after the two candidates left the debate stage, the Harris campaign challenged Trump to a second debate.

“I don’t know if we’re gonna do a second debate,” Trump said in the spin room.

America does not need another debate if it is a repeat of Tuesday night. 

Harris never climbed to the level of a stateswoman having a command of the issues and Trump did not bring back the reality of comparing his years in office with the Biden Harris years in office. 

The 90 minutes debate was moderated by ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.