Kamala Harris Succeeds In Baiting Donald Trump On Everything You’d Expect

Vice President Kamala Harris definitely went into Tuesday night’s debate with former President Donald Trump with a strategy: bait him on the issues that everyone knows get under his skin.

Harris arguably rattled Trump from the moment the debate began, when she walked over to his side of the stage and firmly shook his hand.

Within minutes, the vice president was mocking the nonsensical things he’s been saying at his campaign rallies and suggested it’s been getting old, even for his supporters.

“He talks about fictional characters, like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about how windmills cause cancer,” Harris said. “What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.”

The bait, on a topic that Trump is known to care about, had its intended effect. As the moderator moved on to a question about immigration, Trump interjected to say he wanted to talk about his rallies first.

“People don’t leave my rallies,” he insisted. “We have the biggest rallies. The most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”

Trump also said it was Harris’ rallies with waning attendance, not his, a claim that Harris responded to by throwing her head back in laughter. He then appeared to lose his train of thought, randomly bringing up false reports of migrants eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” said the Republican presidential nominee. “The people on television are saying my dog was taken and used for food.”

Harris started laughing as he said this, per a White House pool report, and said off-mic, “What? This is unbelievable.”

It was a strategy that appeared to work multiple times, on multiple topics. Later in the debate, as Trump repeatedly refused to admit he lost the 2020 presidential election, which he definitely did, Harris took another shot at him.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” she said, as he scoffed in response. “Clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.”

Harris described her travels around the world as vice president, and shared what she said the leaders of other countries have said to her about him.

“World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump,” Harris said, turning to him directly. “I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you. They say you’re a disgrace.”

With that zinger still hanging out there, the vice president took aim at Trump on the very issue on which he loved to attack President Joe Biden when he was still running for reelection: his mental acuity.

The fact that Trump still can’t admit that he lost in 2020 “leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have in the candidate to my right the temperament or the ability to not be confused about facts,” Harris said as Trump appeared unnerved.

Throughout the debate, Harris referred to Trump as “weak” on various policies – a buzz word that certainly got under his skin, given his love of using that same attack on others, as well as his penchant for heaping praise on strongmen.

“It is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security,” Harris said at one point. “It is well known that he admires dictators. He wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself. These dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they’re so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.”

Pointing her finger directly at Trump, she added, “That is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me that you are a disgrace.”

Even the vice president’s body language appeared to be strategic in making Trump uncomfortable. She often looked directly at him as she spoke, whether she was dinging his record or reacting to his accusations.

Trump, for his part, stared straight ahead the entire time.