Trump and Harris Debate Draws Over 67 Million Viewers
An estimated 67.1 million people watched the 1 hour and 45 minute debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on Tuesday night. Axios wrote that Harris “set traps surgically designed to provoke, rattle and enrage Donald Trump.… And over and over, Trump stepped right into them.” Harris successfully put Trump on the defense, gaining reactions from him to personal insults such as her remark that attendees of his famous rallies often leave early “out of exhaustion and boredom” and that world leaders are embarrassed of him.
On the other hand, Harris was seen by some as more composed but with an air of disdaining condescension toward Trump. A New York Times news analysis piece began, “She turned to him with an arched brow. A quiet sigh. A hand on her chin. A laugh. A pitying glance. A dismissive shake of her head.”
From a policy standpoint, there was criticism on both sides for failure to provide detailed answers. Axios highlighted that “many of the debate topics played to Harris’s strengths: January 6, Trump's threats to jail his opponents, abortion, the Affordable Care Act, race and climate change,” while Trump repeatedly emphasized the economy and immigration. The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel observed, “Ms. Harris deftly changed the subject on nearly every direct question she was asked, and neither the moderators nor Donald Trump pressed her on the omissions.”
The moderators’ role in the debate also became a focal point of discussion. Trump was “fact-checked” by the moderators several times, while Harris was not fact-checked during the debate at all. This discrepancy drew criticism from conservative circles. However, CNN anchor Abby Phillip defended the uneven fact-checking, stating that “asymmetrical lying” requires “asymmetrical fact-checking.”5 Post-debate analyses, including from Breitbart and CNN, claimed that both candidates had made misleading statements, with Breitbart fact-checking Harris 21 times6 and CNN fact-checking Trump 30 times.
Despite these varied reactions, the real question remains whether the debate shifted opinions among undecided voters. A Reuters poll found that 6 out of 10 undecided voters leaned toward Trump following the debate, and interviews of undecided voters conducted by the New York Times yielded this headline: “Pundits Said Harris Won the Debate. Undecided Voters Weren’t So Sure.”
Many felt that Trump could have improved his debate performance by responding less to Harris’s attempts to bait him and counterpunching more on her record and policy flip flops. But most conservatives felt the deck was stacked against the former president, with a common phrase being “three against one.”
With early voting already underway and election day only 53 days away, it remains uncertain how or if this debate will significantly move the needle. In battleground states, the Real Clear Politics polling average currently gives Harris a +0.1% margin, and nationally just +1.5%.
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