Kamala Harris came to the 2024 presidential debate poised and ready to rattle her opponent Donald Trump. The current Vice President took to the podium across from Trump for their first face-to-face meeting since she announced she was running, but she didn’t come alone.
One of the recent Democratic tactics to undermine Trump during the presidential race has been to show the American people just what it’s like to work for him. The Democrats have been bringing in former staffers of Trump by the truckload and trotting them on out to expose what Trump is really like when the cameras are off.
Honestly, he is so bad when they’re on that thinking about what he’s like behind the scenes makes me shudder. This was a large part of their tactic at the Democratic National Convention and also appears to have been used again for Tuesday night’s debate.
Harris showed up to her first debate since announcing her candidacy with two of Trump’s former staffers in tow, Former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former Trump national security official Olivia Troye. Scaramucci is a somewhat obvious (tad boring) pick given that he lasted less than 10 days in the Trump administration after a phone call he made to a journalist, calling the former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a “paranoid schizophrenic” and colorfully lambasting Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, got out. Troye, on the other hand was critical of the then President’s response to the Covid pandemic and has since worked hard to ensure that Trump does not get back into office.
The two were giving interviews around the debate, warning the people of the dangers that Trump poses should he get back into the White House. The Democratic part is framing it as a way to show what those who have worked close to Trump, or under his administration, feel about him returning to power. Harris’ communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement,
“Listen, don’t take it from us: Take it from the ones who know Donald Trump the best and who are telling the American people exactly how unfit Trump is to serve as president. Now as Americans prepare to tune in for tonight’s debate, these former Trump staffers are warning that a second Donald Trump presidency would be far more dangerous and extreme than the first.”
Trump’s team responded, with communication director, Steven Cheung, replying, “nobody is going to listen to someone who was a low-level staffer who didn’t even work for President Trump and someone who barely lasted more time than an expired ham sandwich as White House communications director.”
Talking to Here & Now host Scott Tong, Scaramucci spoke of the calm manner the Harris team had before the debate, despite it being her first presidential debate and Trump’s seventh. He went on to say, “I would say within 15 minutes of the debate, and this is something you know as a human being, you pick up right way, as bad as Joe Biden was in the first debate that was Donald Trump last night. She clearly bested him,” adding, “he was in trouble at 6:57 PM last night, the moment his plane landed.”
Trump was clearly not prepared to go up against Harris, and she had him on the ropes for much of the debate, along with the ABC hosts who were fact-checking him throughout the debate. Although Harris has scored points for her performance during the debate, will it be enough to get her over the finishing line?
Published: Sep 12, 2024 03:05 pm