Donald Trump had a three-pronged plan to keep the debate spotlight on Kamala Harris. So how did he start accusing immigrants of eating cats?
Donald Trump’s advisers had a plan. Keep the focus on Kamala Harris, and paint her as a San Francisco liberal who was connected to every mistake Joe Biden ever made.
It didn’t take a minute.
Harris had already thrown him off guard when she walked across the stage, introduced herself by name and shook his hand like an enthusiastic freshman arriving on campus.
Minutes later, she sprung her trap with a choreographed dig at his rallies, ridiculing his speeches about Hannibal Lecter and windmills causing cancer and, most cuttingly, pointing out that his supporters are already running for the exit before he’s finished speaking.
It struck a chord, and she knew it.
Donald Trump quickly switched to personal attacks on Kamala Harris and wild claims about immigrants during the debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday night
“We have the largest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” he responded, before blaming Harris for the uncontrolled immigration that he said motivated his supporters.
‘The people who came in, they ate the cats. They ate… they ate the pets of the people who live there.
“And this is what is happening in our country, and it is a disgrace.”
Harris tilted her head to one side, frowned, and brought her hand to her chin.
Then she started laughing and grinned as wide as she could.
Her body language spoke volumes: I can’t believe he took the bait.
According to conservative commentator Matt K. Lewis, the debate’s lack of intellectual power was made up for by sheer entertainment.
And it betrayed Trump’s longstanding weakness, he said, in his apparent lack of discipline.
“I find it crazy that her team has been saying for days that this is her strategy, that she wants to troll Trump and get him upset,” he said.
“And then she did it.”
Harris walked straight up to Trump as they took the stage. “Kamala Harris,” she said, extending her hand and introducing herself when they first met
Harris looked at Trump as he spoke, occasionally frowning
She laid out a series of traps for him, which he was unable to trigger.
Trump’s advisers privately and publicly urged him to keep the focus on her and to steer clear of personal attacks.
In an article for DailyMail.com last week, Trump ally Kellyanne Conway laid out the thoughts and advice she gave him when he was running against Hillary Clinton. The same went for Harris, she said.
“When the race is all about you, it’s harder to win. When the race is all about both of you, where people have a clear, comparative binary choice and can’t ignore and dismiss what they’re learning from her and about her, you’re the next president,” she wrote.
The debate plan was threefold: paint Harris as a crazy liberal from California; tie her to all of Biden’s policies, the high prices, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, everything; and use her own words, namely that her values haven’t changed, to pigeonhole her with her left-wing past.
Besides, she’s been in power for three and a half years. If she had a plan to fix things, Trump would ask, why hasn’t she started yet?
Sometimes he succeeded.
He found a rich source of attacks by linking Harris to the conflicts that have erupted around the world since Biden took office.
“She’s worse than Biden, in my opinion. I think he’s the worst president in the history of our country,” he said
“She’s going to go down as the worst vice president in the history of our country. But let me tell you something. She’s a terrible negotiator.”
Members of the Escondido Republican Women watch the presidential debate between Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump from their headquarters in Escondido, California
Journalists and members of the media watch from the spin room as U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participate in a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
When he spoke, she looked at him, letting her facial expressions do the work. Sometimes she put her hand on her chin, assuming a questioning pose.
He looked straight ahead as she spoke.
While she remained calm, collected and aware of the policy details, he raised his voice.
“She was extremely well prepared, she set traps and he chased every rabbit down every hole,” Chris Christie, no fan of Trump, said on ABC after the debate.
After the second commercial break, he recovered, just in time for his closing statement, and remembered his talking points.
“So she just started saying she was going to do this, she was going to do that. She was going to do all these great things. Why didn’t she do it.”
The question for longtime Trump watchers is whether the debate will change anything. The 78-year-old nominee has long campaigned in a brash style of thinly-substantiated claims and personal attacks.
“While Harris managed to hit Trump with her well-crafted attacks, it’s still not clear whether she fully convinced voters to finally make a decision based on this exchange,” said Ron Bonjean, a veteran Republican congressional strategist.
The question now is to what extent she actually moved the needle.
“But Trump has done himself no favors by agreeing to this debate.”
He may also have hung himself on his own speaking time. A tally kept by CNN showed Harris spoke for 37 minutes and 36 seconds, while Trump used 42 minutes and 52 seconds.