She set a tone at the very start when she walked right into his space to shake his hand and made him almost pull back into himself in response. She was in charge and never stopped being in charge.

Harris also managed what neither Joe Biden nor Hillary Clinton nor any of the 2016 Republicans managed to do which is successfully bait Donald Trump and get under his skin. Within a few minutes Trump was visibly angry and not in a way that empowered him but in a way that made him lose focus, go down rabbit holes and generally go off onto damaging tangents. Spittle anger, not righteous anger, shall we say.

  • @IAmTheZeke
    link
    176 days ago

    I know a conservative mother who started the debate with Israel, abortion, and godly values being her main concerns. Godly values was the most important to her.

    Before we even got to “concepts of a plan” she actually said she isn’t sure who is the best choice for the country. We stopped giving the tv our full attention when she said it was depressing her - we ended up playing cards games the rest of the debate so I didn’t react as much. But thankfully I got to chuckle live at the concepts of a plan.

    I’ve been trying to avoid saying “weird” when talking about republicans. I don’t want right leaning folk to think I’m trying to buzzword them. But it’s really hard and sometimes I do say weird (was describing JD Vance’s eyeliner) but that kinda makes it worse because I’ll catch myself saying it and backpedal immediately and change the word (the eyeliner became ‘unflattering’ instead of ‘weird’) and they notice. And it feels like I have to protect them. Like… I’m not calling them snowflakes to their faces… But I’m loudly walking the proverbial egg shells.

    This is why I had to say that “Concepts of a plan” was cute instead of weird. I ended up comparing it to my mother asking if I had cleaned my room, with me responding “I’ve thought about cleaning my room.”

    All that to say… It’s hard for anyone with a good heart to enjoy Trump speaking. We made comments that Harris was obviously baiting him - but does that matter when he takes the bait? The immigration stories. The hate-filled eyes.

    Trump is either a mean old man who is innocent. Or he’s a terrible liar - and truly a bad person.

    It was a good night. I don’t know who she will vote for. But in 2020 I DID. When Harris addressed how you don’t need to abandon your faith to know the trump ban laws are wrong, it felt like Kamala was speaking directly to people like her