Nobody saw it coming when Kamala Harris made a power move by extending her hand for a handshake with Donald Trump . Before the most-anticipated debate began, the vice president initiated a professional gesture by walking toward him with her hand outstretched. Although the ex-president was visibly uninterested, he still gave a two-word response.
“Have fun,” said Trump to Harris. It was the first time the 2024 presidential candidates were face-to-face since Trump skipped POTUS Joe Biden’s sworn-in ceremony in 2021. However, they both took multiple jibes at each other in the media, evidently their meeting and the handshake were awkward, to put it mildly. “Kamala Harris. Let’s have a good debate,” she introduced as Trump responded, “Nice to see you. Have fun,” per The Mirror.
Harris took command at the start: startled Trump by being the ‘bigger adult’ to come over for a handshake greeting! pic.twitter.com/91EqSoVAd1
— Greg Backlund (@GregBacklund) September 11, 2024
The Republican candidate was initially hesitant to have a debate with Harris, citing many excuses. However, the Democratic nominee frequently challenged him for a face-off. After a lot of back and forth, they agreed to have the presidential debate that all political enthusiasts had been eagerly awaiting. And it didn’t disappoint as Harris came with her homework while Trump was Trump.
In the 1 hour 45 minutes first and probably last presidential debate, Harris was precise, in control, and cutthroat in her responses to Trump’s attacks on her personal life and political career. She confronted him for his alleged lies, and his weak points like abortion and reproductive rights, while telling him that the “world leaders are laughing at him.”
The unfounded claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets reached national attention after being repeated first by J.D. Vance and then his running mate Donald Trump in the latter’s debate with Kamala Harris. A good piece tracing the origins of this ‘Ohio’ conspiracy theory ⤵️ https://t.co/Z31ycL0Jpu
— Danny Postel (@DannyPostel) September 11, 2024
The 78-year-old was his usual self, ranting, yelling, and name-calling Harris while also echoing the conspiracy theory his running mate JD Vance spread about Haitian immigrants killing and eating local pets like cats and ducks in Springfield, Ohio. He was corrected by the ABC debate moderator David Muir that there’s no such proof of it as the local police department dismissed any such reports. But he reiterated he saw it on “television.”
Donald Trump is whining about crowd sizes and claiming people are eating their pets. We cannot take this man seriously.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 11, 2024
Their debate drew a lot of reactions from people and political experts. For instance, Marc Short, former chief of staff to ex-VP Mike Pence , weighed in, “Trump missed an opportunity to stay focused prosecuting the case against Biden-Harris on the economy and border and instead took her bait. Harris passed the test of looking presidential and Trump didn’t expose her historically radical positions,” as per Reuters.
Read it all. It’s common knowledge… yet the ABC “moderators” (propagandists) didn’t call out a single Kamala Harris lie. I wonder why??? https://t.co/3129emcmWk
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 11, 2024
Democratic strategist, Karen Finney, added, “This is going to be remembered as one of the most impressive debate performances in modern politics. The VP is doing exactly what she needed to do: talk about her vision and policy ideas. He is rambling, making things up, and spouting lies and nonsense faster than the fact-checkers can keep up.”
Meanwhile, the political science professor and pollster at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania noted that the debate performance wouldn’t affect the polls much. “They both held pretty tight to their game plans. Harris baited Trump with some degree of success, but I don’t think he ever departed far from the messages he wanted to deliver.”