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September 11th 2024

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

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The US in brief

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

What happened?
Kamala Harris made Donald Trump look out of his depth when the two met on the debate stage. From the start, her game-plan was clearly to needle him. It worked. He spent most of the 90-minute encounter on the defensive, and looked particularly childish when getting drawn into digressions about the size of the crowds at the two candidates’ respective rallies. Although she has been vice-president for nearly four years, Ms Harris tried to make him look like the incumbent and force him to defend his record.

How did Ms Harris perform?
The vice-president proved herself a nimble debater. Despite having abandoned policies she once supported, such as a ban on fracking, she defended herself from charges of flip-flopping by trotting out stories of her upbringing with practised links to her current policies, claiming that “my values have not changed.” Criticisms of her opponent’s role in the overturning of Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the federal right to an abortion, were affecting, as was her promise to sign the right to the procedure into law if a bill crossed her desk as president. She did not add much detail to any of her policy positions.

And Mr Trump?
Mr Trump spent much of his time responding to Ms Harris’s attempts to goad him rather than setting the agenda. When he was not doing so, he played the two cards he has found effective in the past: linking immigration to crime and blaming the Biden administration for inflation. He spoke with his usual disregard for the truth, dismissing the cost to ordinary Americans of his tariff plan and alleging that Democrats supported the “execution” of babies after birth. At times he returned to some of his more bizarre obsessions, including false claims that immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

What were the take-aways?
At several points, Ms Harris reminded Mr Trump that he was no longer debating his former opponent, Joe Biden. Mr Trump certainly wished that he were. Though her answers were sometimes wordy and indirect, Ms Harris proved a more-than-adequate sparring partner. Mr Trump spent the night with his guard up, his jabs rarely effective. Nothing said is likely to change the mind of Americans who have picked their side—rather than engage with the fine points of the other’s argument, both contenders sought to convince Americans that the other was lying to them. And while Mr Trump showed again that he is obsessed with the past, Ms Harris urged Americans: “Let’s chart a course to the future.”

What will be the meme of the debate?
Mr Trump took the first bash at coining a meme worthy phrase, describing Ms Harris’s economic plan as “like four sentences, like ‘run, spot, run’”. But it did not land as well as he would have liked. Ms Harris’s claim that Putin “would eat you for lunch” seems a better contender for virality. But the internet is more likely to be set ablaze by a celebrity endorsement: that of Taylor Swift. Shortly after the debate Ms Swift, one of America’s favourite pop stars, came out in favour of Ms Harris. She signed off her Instagram post, which was accompanied by a photo of Ms Swift holding a moggy, with “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady”—a reference to a claim by J.D. Vance, Mr Trump’s running-mate, that America is run by such people.

No contest

For 90 minutes, Ms Harris baited hook after hook, and Mr Trump bit. Ms Harris repeatedly provoked Mr Trump to defend his self-image and his own record in office, rather than mount a sustained attack on her. Lexington calls it “catch-and-decrease”: she made the former president look small and angry and out of his depth, a beleaguered incumbent with a record to defend.

A view from elsewhere
The debate was a “missed opportunity for both candidates”, wrote Amber Duke in the Spectator, a right-of-centre British magazine. But the worst part of the debate was the “abysmal and uneven job” of the ABC moderators, who fact-checked Mr Trump but not Ms Harris. “Ultimately, it’s better to err on the side of letting the debaters ‘fact-check’ one another,” she said.

We want to hear from you about the debate
We’re keen to hear your take on how Tuesday’s debate went. If you have thoughts on the contest drop us a line at usib@economist.com. And, of course, we still welcome your feedback on this newsletter.

Editor’s picks

Our latest US coverage

Lexington

Kamala Harris makes Donald Trump look out of his depth

The presidential debate was a success for the vice-president

The Economist explains

Will the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump matter?

Normally presidential match-ups hardly move the needle—but this is no ordinary year

Prosecutor v promoter

Two charts assess Donald Trump’s distinctive debate style

Johnson, our language columnist, compares Trump-speak with Harris-ese

Today’s forecast

Our forecast reckons that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have nearly equal chances of winning the election in November.

Daily quiz

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things American.

Wednesday: The famous “Lincoln–Douglas debates”, between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, were not actually presidential debates. Which office were the two men vying for?

Tuesday: In the first debate of 1980 Jimmy Carter, the Democratic incumbent president, did not square off against his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan. Who did?

See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.

If you enjoyed this week’s quiz, play Dateline, The Economist’s new history game.

Seen on Instagram

We can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.

—Taylor Swift, possibly America’s favourite childless cat lady.

Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.

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