How Harris demolished Trump in the debate

He walked into a buzzsaw, over and over, baited and confused. She exposed him as the petty, incoherent, lying, incompetent, and racist bully that he is. And it was beautiful.

It began with the handshake at the very beginning, in which Kamala Harris walked over to Donald Trump, who was hesitant, clearly seeing a Black woman as beneath him. But she forced it; he couldn’t back away. She not only introduced herself, correcting him on the pronunciation of her name—”I’m Kamala Harris”—but she shook his hand firmly and confidently.

I think Trump began to lose it right there.

Throughout last night’s 90-plus minute debate, Harris was on offense and pivoting gracefully, from speaking to Americans about what she’s done and the vital work ahead to vaporizing Trump.

She owned the stage.

She was poised and comfortable, while also being forceful. She told her own story, growing up in a middle-class family, and looked into the camera repeatedly and told the American people her plans. But then she would effortlessly switch back and go on the attack. And she was merciless, throwing Trump on defense.

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She called him a disgrace, expressing the outrage of millions at this embarrassment of a former president. She had facts and details, pointing to his failures and character flaws. She also mocked him and laughed at him. Harris’ facial expressions and hand gestures while Trump ranted were priceless: the smile that said “you’re nuts,"  the wide-eyed bemusement, the hand on the chin.

Most importantly, Harris never called Trump dangerous or frightening or monstrous or menacing or threatening.

These are all words that, in his mind, which is polluted by toxic masculinity, give him power.

She instead called him “weak” and a “disgrace,” among many other things. All of it struck at the heart of his perception of being virile, and it triggered him like clockwork each time.

He was angry and hunched over, his eyes showing rage. He alternately grimaced or flashed a fake smile of disgust and grievance. He was also befuddled, slow, and clearly showing cognitive decline, no match for her sharpness.

He spun out ridiculous lies in his defense, as usual, claiming, for example, that January 6th was the fault of Nancy Pelosi and taking no responsibility after Harris had pummeled him on it.

When he wasn’t defending himself, he was repeatedly attacking immigrants with nonsensical claims, to the point of spinning out the kooky story that they were stealing people's dogs in Springfield, Ohio, and eating them. (On that one, he even got the crazy conspiracy theory wrong, as the bowels of the far-right had spread the lie that immigrants were eating cats, not dogs.)

Trump showed how much he is in a far-right MAGA bubble and cannot escape it, completely divorced from reality. And again, I think this is where his mental decline came into play too.

Here he was on a stage with tens of millions of people watching—millions of whom are the voters he needs to win over—defending himself against Harris having said that world leaders are “laughing at Donald Trump” and he holds up the autocrat Victor Orban, the Hungarian strongman who has stripped that country of rights, as an example of a world leader who praised him.

That was pretty stunning even for him, I thought. Does he truly believe the rest of the world—the voters he needs—thinks Orban is wonderful?

Completely out of touch with reality. That was similarly exhibited when he rebutted her admonition of him for his comments on Charlottesville by claiming “Laura Ingraham and Sean Hanntiy” had debunked that.

Ingraham and Hannity? Seriously?

On the issue of abortion, Harris completely eviscerated him, speaking passionately and forcefully taking him to task for what he has done to women across America. It was masterful.

Trump, trying to defend himself but fearful of Christian nationalists, wouldn’t even say he’d veto a federal abortion ban, even though JD Vance last week said he would. Clearly, the campaign is seeing slippage in the base after Trump's abortion flip-flops. But this was a jarring admission and real news, and will be surely used in ads by Harris. Democrats were proven 100% right in saying he’d sign a federal abortion ban.

Equally jarring was his refusal to say he wants Ukraine to “win” the war after he was twice asked by moderator David Muir of ABC (which did a better job than CNN at fact-checking this debate). It only validated Harris’ point that he would allow Vladimir Putin to take the country, whole or in part, eyeing Poland after that. And then she brilliantly told him to tell that to the 800,000 Polish-Americans “here in Pennsylvania.”

How Harris was able to get Trump to unravel was by baiting him over and over again. He just kept walking into the trap, dazed and confused, like a rat on fentanyl.

She’d give a substantive answer with real criticism of his actions and policies, but she’d throw in something to rattle him, like when she said the crowds at his rallies eventually “start leaving his rallies” early after he becomes unhinged and muses about Hannibal Lecter, bored and tired of the same old show. This made Trump defend himself on the crowds leaving rather than the substance of her comments about his actions and policies. And it showed him to be a petty narcissist.

I could go on. But I know you’ll all have your own points to make and your favorite parts of the debate to discuss. And I’ll be speaking more about it on my SiriusXM radio program today. So please join in here with your thoughts.

I don’t know what this does to the race—I’ve learned not to predict—but Kamala Harris did everything she needed to do in this debate and then some. Americans who wanted to learn more about her and her policies learned a lot. She showed she was presidential and ready. And she showed she is tough. Moreover, she did what our terrible media hasn’t been able to do: call Donald Trump to account forcefully and watch him crumble.

One thing is certain: this further energized all of us who are supporters, and that goes a long way at raising dollars, registering people, and getting people out the vote. And then, on top of it, Taylor Swift came out with her endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket right after the debate, which will energize her huge fan base. All around, a great night.